An emerging transnational industrial relations? Exploring the prospects for cross‐border labour bargaining

Global union federations (GUFs) and multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been concluding “international framework agreements” (IFAs) to protect their interests amidst the globalizing economic landscape. By modelling the underlying bargaining processes, the authors show that IFAs can be expected when both sides exhibit risk aversion, although the agreement will favour the less risk‐averse side. Since globalization has created fewer vulnerabilities for MNEs than for GUFs, IFAs have so far typically delivered only minimal benefits for labour. But this should change in the future if strengthened transnational union capacities and abilities to threaten MNEs with reputational costs bring greater equalization of attitudes towards risk.     

Strategizing in NPOs: A Case Study on the Practice of Organizational Change Between Social Mission and Economic Rationale

This article presents the main results of a longitudinal case study of a strategic change process in a cooperative bank. Pursuing both a “social” mission and an explicitly economic rationale, this particular nonprofit organization provides an exemplary research setting for inquiring into the delicate and contradictory interplay of mission focus and commercial imperatives. Departing from the practice perspective as a micro-view on everyday strategizing—an approach that seems to have not found its way into NPO-research yet—allows us to take an in-depth look at how people go about the process of making strategy despite the tensions between mission and profit. Our data yields three patterns of strategizing practices that aim at fostering economic growth without damaging the social mission, namely supporting diverse positions, protecting stabilized relationships, and relating to organizational experiences. Building upon our empirical results, we tentatively conceptualize “balancing practices” as potentially important acts of strategizing in NPOs.     

THE POPULAR IN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

This paper suggests a systems theoretical re-reading of popular communication and the Popular in the political system. Luhmann' anti-humanist notion of communication helps to reframe the discussion of the Popular: it is not defined by an en- or decoding instance, but by a particular mode of ‘connectivity'. Drawing from heterogeneous material (Mars Attacks!, crowd psychology, theory of democracy), it is argued that the problem of the Popular arises when a functional system has to represent something that transgresses the system' universality. That which the system has to exclude to become a system re-emerges as ‘grotesque hybrid’, thus pointing at a universality that is, on the one hand, an opportunity for a further universalization and, on the other, a threat to the very universality of the system. The ‘Popular’ thus acquires a hybrid position by articulating these two dimensions.     

Understanding and influencing urban residents’ knowledge about wildland management in Austin, Texas

Due to increasing exurban settlement around Austin, Texas and subsequent land use changes, the City of Austin Wildland Division faces competing pressures from residential communities regarding land and wildlife management actions. Current environmental education and outreach efforts in Austin focus on developing environmental literacy about the city’s wildland areas adjacent to exurban settlement as well as their management program. The desired outcome is to promote more positive perceptions and motivate pro-environmental behaviors that are consistent with the city’s wildland program. We conducted a mail survey of 1,000 residents living near the urban wildlands to better understand factors that influence residents’ proficiency in four knowledge domains: karst aquifers, endangered species, rangeland ecology, and the city’s management program. Regression analyses identified positive associations between local newspaper readership and residents’ environmental knowledge of karst aquifer geology, rangelands, and city’s wildland program. Previous engagement in environmentally oriented education programs or organization was positively associated with all four knowledge domains. Some strategies for information dissemination about the wildlands include the use of local newspapers and homeowners association newsletters. Newer, younger residents are the suggested target audience for initiating a proposed environmental education and outreach program. Such programs should incorporate both local environmental organizations and homeowners associations.     

Counting Young Carers in Switzerland – A Study of Prevalence

An online survey of children in school grades 4–9 (mostly aged 10–15) was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of young carers in Switzerland using a 2‐stage stratified sampling approach. 4082 respondents were drawn from 230 schools. A total of 3991 respondents were included in the analysis and of these 307 (7.7%) were identified as young carers. The population estimate of prevalence was 7.9 per cent. This suggests that there are around 38 400 young carers in school grades 4–9 in Switzerland. Extrapolating to the 9–16 age group gives a figure of almost 51 500.     

Strategy and Structure in High-Performing Nonprofits: Insights from Iberoamerican Cases

Some nonprofits evolve from small into large international organizations. For years, “structure follows strategy” (Chandler) has been the dictum to explain organizational strategic changes like the ones in nonprofits. But scholars also recognized organization structure to be a precondition to carry out certain strategies. Nevertheless, research on structure and strategy in nonprofits is limited. This paper explores the mutual influence of organization structure and strategy in high-performing nonprofits in Iberoamerica based on a secondary analysis of 20 unpublished research cases of the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network. It follows the research question: Which organizations’ strategies and structures characterize high-performing nonprofits over time? Four types of organizing patterns emerged: starting-up, professionalizing, decentralizing, and conglomerating.     

Strategic sustainability and financial performance: exploring abnormal returns

The ongoing empirical debate about whether SRI is associated, if anything, with subpar or surpassing financial performance is characterized by a somewhat indistinct focus and the infeasibility of tapping the full potential of existing models. By indistinct focus, we mean an analysis based on an aggregation of a myriad of SRI factors that potentially affect a firm’s financial performance. The inability of taking full advantage of existing models is reflected by the fact that studies with European data have not been able to comprehensively account for systematic risk tilts. This paper presents a portfolio analysis that overcomes these issues by analyzing a distinct selection of small and innovative firms. We argue that both their strategic implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility and the general growth in socially responsible investments (SRI) lend themselves to an explanation for positive abnormal returns of this portfolio. We account for the idiosyncratic investment style of SRI by introducing a comprehensive pan-European risk-adjusted portfolio analysis based on the Carhart four-factor model. A novel propensity score matching method in conjunction with the estimation of structural models completes the conventional robustness checks in the literature.     

‘Not worth mentioning’: The implicit and explicit nature of decision-making about the division of paid and domestic work

The aim of this qualitative study of 31 Dutch couples is to help us understand why the division of paid and unpaid work between women and men remains stubbornly unequal, despite women's gains in the workplace and rising educational levels. This study expands on other research by documenting daily implicit and explicit decision-making about the division of paid and domestic work by couples during a unique period of their lives: the formative years of their relationship, until they are expecting their first child. Our findings indicate that in general, these Dutch couples do not look explicitly at their division of paid and domestic work, and that this often perpetuates a gendered division of work. More explicit decision-making occurs when couples have a very strong preference for equal sharing, or when the partners disagree or feel frustrated with their current situation. One important finding of this study is that even the couples who prefer to divide the work equally often end up following traditional patterns. This has to do with the decision-making strategies they apply, which seem to be grounded in ambivalent feelings about roles and responsibilities and often romanticizing relationships. Such ambivalence functions as a barrier to more effective decision-making processes. Data from this study seems to suggest that couples wanting to share household responsibilities should, as a minimum, engage in explicit decision-making until they have developed egalitarian routines.     

Multidimensional Assessment of Poverty Alleviation in a Developing Country: A Case Study on Economic Interventions

Donors increasingly expect international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) to prove that the organizations' economic development interventions alleviate poverty. Currently, many INGOs search for new methods to meet this demand by focusing on the expectations of donors rather than those of beneficiaries. We analyze the benefit of qualitative, context‐specific methods and ask the question: What can an economic development intervention contribute to poverty alleviation from the perspective of the beneficiaries? In our case study, a negative economic valuation was not automatically a reason to evaluate the economic intervention as a failure. Assessment thus cannot be reduced to economic impacts. Also, qualitative approaches can add beneficiary‐oriented data in a context in which accountability mainly focuses on donors. This beneficiary orientation likely leads to better accountability negotiations with donors. Three hypotheses introduce these results.