Labor Relations Commons^™

Top Athlete Pay, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

The US has a history of discussing the pay of the relatively well-paid. This is partly because pay levels of some are revealed publicly (e.g., CEOs of publicly traded companies). Americans are also characterized as being celebrity-obsessed. So discussing the pay of superstars seems inevitable. However, they do not have quality data on the compensation of the relatively highly paid in many organizations and professions. When the author speaks about compensation in front of large groups, someone (and in many cases, many people) gets incensed over what they term "outrageous" or "egregious" levels of executive compensation. Athletes are rarely mentioned. …

An Alternative To Temporary Staffing: Considerations For Workforce Practitioners, Linda Kato, Françoise Carré, Laura E. Johnson, Deena Schwartz

Center for Social Policy Publications

As the national economy inches toward recovery, risk-averse employers are increasingly turning to temporary workers to fill their hiring gaps. In fact, the temporary staffing industry has been a fixture of the US economy for decades. But the industry added a striking 557,000 jobs from June 2009 to November 2011 — more than half of the jobs created during that period. Growth is likely to continue: A 2011 McKinsey survey of 2,000 firms of differing sizes and across various sectors found that more than a third foresaw their companies increasing their use of temporary workers over the next five years. …

Partnering With The Massachusetts Department Of Developmental Services On Employment-Focused Systems Change, Cindy Thomas, Margaret Van Gelder, John Butterworth, Institute For Community Inclusion, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (MA-DDS) has been working to make its system of day services and supports more focused on competitive employment outcomes. This effort has involved a partnership among DDS, the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI), the State Employment Leadership Network, and the Work Without Limits project. ICI has worked alongside DDS throughout this effort, providing consulting, technical assistance, training, and evaluation activities.

Why Use The Services Of Alternative Staffing Organizations: Perspectives From Customer Businesses, Françoise Carré, Brandynn Holgate, Risa Takenaka, Helen Levine

Center for Social Policy Publications

Organizations that aim to improve the experiences and employment chances of job seekers who face barriers to employment have, over the years, had to contend directly with potential employers and their requirements. This is particularly true for community-based job brokers that use a temporary staffing model, offering job access and immediate work to their service population.

Alternative staffing organizations (ASOs) are worker-centered, social purpose businesses that place job seekers in temporary and “temp-to-perm” assignments with customer businesses, and charge their customers a markup on the wage of the position. These fee-for-service organizations can help job seekers who face labor market …

Labor Culture: Labor Morality Under Socialism, Vladimir Magun

Russian Culture

Soviet leaders had always taken a keen interest in workers' behavior and labor motives and sought to keep labor morality under strict state control. A complex network of values and regulations was developed for this purpose after the October Revolution of 1917. They were best articulated in the "political economy of socialism" which purported to present a scientific picture of the country's economic life. Textbooks on socialist economy were widely circulated in the Soviet Union and appropriate courses included into a core curriculum for all higher education institutions in the country. Basic tenets of socialist political economy were taught in …

Workplace Dignity In A Total Institution: Examining The Experiences Of Foxconn’S Migrant Workforce, Kristen Lucas, Dongjing Kang, Zhou Li

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In 2010, a cluster of suicides at the electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group sparked worldwide outcry about working conditions at its factories in China. Within a few short months, 14 young migrant workers jumped to their deaths from buildings on the Foxconn campus, an all-encompassing compound where they had worked, eaten, and slept. Even though the language of workplace dignity was invoked in official responses from Foxconn and its business partner Apple, neither of these parties directly examined workers’ dignity in their ensuing audits. Based on our analysis of media accounts of life at Foxconn, we argue that its …

The Alternative Staffing Work Experience: Populations, Barriers And Employment Outcomes, Helen Levine, Brandynn Holgate, Risa Takenaka, Françoise Carré

Center for Social Policy Publications

This paper presents results of a three-year study of workers and former workers at four Alternative Staffing Organizations (ASOs). ASOs are fee-for-service job brokering businesses created by community-based organizations and national nonprofits whose objective is to gain access to temporary and “temp to permanent” opportunities for workers facing barriers to employment. The paper looks specifically at the relationship between the personal characteristics of workers, their temporary work experiences through the ASO, and the subsequent employment status of former ASO workers, determined through a follow-up survey conducted by telephone six to eight months after workers had left the ASO. We found …

Securing Access To Lower-Cost Talent Globally: The Dynamics Of Active Embedding And Field Structuration, Stephan Manning, Joerg Sydow, Arnold Windeler

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

This article examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) shape institutional conditions in emerging economies to secure access to high-skilled, yet lower-cost science and engineering talent. Based on two in-depth case studies of engineering offshoring projects of German automotive suppliers in Romania and China we analyze how MNCs engage in ‘active embedding’ by aligning local institutional conditions with global offshoring strategies and operational needs. MNCs thereby contribute to the structuration of field relations and practices of sourcing knowledge-intensive work from globally dispersed locations.Our findings stress the importance of institutional processes across geographic boundaries that regulate and get shaped by MNC activities.

The Emergence Of A Standards Market: Multiplicity Of Sustainability Standards In The Global Coffee Industry, Juliane Reinecke, Stephan Manning, Oliver Von Hagen

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

The growing number of voluntary standards for governing transnational arenas is presenting standards organizations with a problem. While claiming that they are pursuing shared, overarching objectives, at the same time, they are promoting their own respective standards that are increasingly similar. By developing the notion of ‘standards markets,’ this paper examines this tension and studies how different social movement and industry-driven standards organizations compete as well as collaborate over governance in transnational arenas. Based on an in-depth case study of sustainability standards in the global coffee industry, we find that the ongoing co-existence of multiple standards is being promoted by …

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.