The Potential of Labour−Management Partnership: A Longitudinal Case Analysis

Issues of labour?management cooperation have long attracted the attention of management researchers, practitioners and policymakers. In Britain, the most recent wave of interest has been under the rubric of labour?management partnership, normally concerning the development of cooperative relations between unions and employers. A recurring theme is that cooperative relations can be difficult to develop and sustain, especially in liberal market economies. This paper advances the debate by examining the dynamics of labour?management partnership within the context of a British financial services organization over a 25‐year period. Drawing upon empirical case study data collected between 1990 and 2014, we assess the dynamics of the relationship between a building society and the recognized staff union. We confirm the possibility of sustaining collaborative relationships associated with a mutual gains agenda within a liberal market economy as well as the fragility of such arrangements. While we acknowledge that sustaining cooperative regimes can be difficult, we also caution against the tendency towards institutional determinism and underplaying of agency in many of the partnership critiques. Given the lack of a credible alternative, we conclude that labour?management partnership remains an important public policy goal and should not be dismissed as a chimera.     

Labour‐market Institutions and Macroeconomic Shocks

Abstract. Macroeconomic shocks and labour‐market institutions jointly determine employment growth and economic performance. The effect of shocks depends on the nature of these institutions and the effect of institutional change depends on the macroeconomic environment. It follows that a given set of institutions may be appropriate in one epoch and not in another. We derive a dynamic model of labour demand in which the effect of firing costs on labour demand depends on the macroeconomic environment: when the level of macroeconomic activity is expected to drop and/or the trend rate of productivity growth is small, a rise in firing costs affects mainly (and adversely) the hiring decision and not the layoff decision. This makes firing costs harmful to employment when it may appear most appropriate. In contrast, firing costs can raise employment during periods of high growth and positive shocks. Our hypothesis is supported by empirical results using OECD data.     

Interdependence and Partnership: Building Blocks to Sustainable Development

We are living in a turning point in society's relation with its environment. A first wave of heightened environmental awareness led to the recognition of widespread resource depletion, air and water quality deterioration, forest losses, waste increase, etc., and the need to act on it. The second wave, and we are now on its threshold, is recognition that bringing solutions to this vast range of problems is immensely complex, and will require a much broader-based approach if the solution is to be effective.The interaction needed between business and society in meeting this challenge is increasingly visible, and is resulting in strong and inevitable interdependencies. New forms of participating in society, and of interacting with each other, are being developed by all stakeholders. Moreover this is a potential win–win situation for all involved, and companies can explore these interdependencies and extend them beyond traditional communication into partnerships.     

Sustainable Operations Management

Operations management researchers and practitioners face new challenges in integrating issues of sustainability with their traditional areas of interest. During the past 20 years, there has been growing pressure on businesses to pay more attention to the environmental and resource consequences of the products and services they offer and the processes they deploy. One symptom of this pressure is the movement towards triple bottom line reporting (3BL) concerning the relationship of profit, people, and the planet. The resulting challenges include integrating environmental, health, and safety concerns with green‐product design, lean and green operations, and closed‐loop supply chains. We review these and other “sustainability” themes covered in the first 50 issues of Production and Operations Management and conclude with some thoughts on future research challenges in sustainable operations management.     

Unionization and Labour‐market Discrimination: A Closer Look at Non‐unionized Workers

This paper introduces a model that examines the effects of unions on pay and hiring gaps between non‐unionized men and women in the context of imperfect competition. Although the model does not question the advantages unions obtain for their members, it does show that (1) unions increase wage and occupational discrimination for non‐unionized workers; (2) the non‐unionized sector does not constitute a good comparison group for use in analysing the impact of unions on gender discrimination; and (3) public policies targeting gender differences in occupational sorting can also have a positive impact on gender wage differentials.     

Sustainable Supply Network Management

This article presents an overview of current practices in managing sustainability (social, ethical, environmental) issues in supply networks. It is based on an examination of eight economic sectors in Europe and North America, including utilities, transport, information and communication technology (ICT), retail, tourism and leisure, construction, chemicals and the public sector. It was found that for the vast majority of organisations, the incorporation of sustainability issues is a new area of activity and many have yet to begin managing them in their supply networks. Of those that are active, most have so far only focused on environmental issues. This is largely due to the presence of external environmental drivers, such as legislation, market pressure and media attention, and a lack of external pressures for social and ethical issues in most sectors. So far, tools and strategies have predominantly focused on the procurement process and the management of corporate risk. However, cutting edge organisations are exploring partnership approaches for sharing knowledge, solving shared problems and harnessing opportunities for competitive advantage.     

可持续发展管理:从指标体系到政策

本文提出可持续发展指标与政策的构成基础,强调对可持续发展管理来说,政策比指标更为需要。     

Cultural Industries: Product–Market Characteristics,Management Challenges and Industry Dynamics

During the last decade, cultural industries have grown in economic importance, and research interest in them has increased. Despite prolific research, there is a lack of a comprehensive view on the subject. The purpose of the present paper is to offer a reconceptualization of cultural industries by tracing their boundaries, their features and the dynamics that follow from these features. This is achieved through a review of 314 cultural industries studies, whereby a classification system of three main and six sub‐categories is constructed. On the basis of the review, a framework for future research is presented. Most importantly, future research should examine selection criteria and selection performance, and explore the relationships between tastes, sales, diversity and quality. In this way, researchers might be able to create some order in the extreme uncertainty that cultural industries managers face.     

Looking Forward,Looking Back: British Journal of Management 2000–2015

This paper reflects on 16 years of the British Journal of Management (BJM) and discusses what the future holds. The paper analyses publication statistics and submission figures, as well as Special Interest Group (SIG) affiliation of submissions over the more recent period of 2007–2015. It is found that human resource management has a clear dominance among the SIGs. Other fields that are well represented include strategy, work psychology, corporate governance and performance management. The paper also highlights that submissions to BJM are predominantly made by UK‐based authors, possibly reflecting the concentration of UK‐based academics among the pool of associate editors and the editorial board members.     

Discrete–Time Approximations of the Holmström–Milgrom Brownian–Motion Model of Intertemporal Incentive Provision

This paper studies the relation between discrete–time and continuous–time principal–agent models. We derive the continuous–time model as a limit of discrete–time models with ever shorter periods and show that optimal incentive schemes in the discrete–time models approximate the optimal incentive scheme in the continuous model, which is linear in accounts. Under the additional assumption that the principal observes only cumulative total profits at the end and the agent can destroy profits unnoticed, an incentive scheme that is linear in total profits is shown to be approximately optimal in the discrete–time model when the length of the period is small.     

伙伴关系、物流能力与供应链整合关系研究

目前学术界对于影响供应链整合的因素以及这些因素如何影响到供应链整合的研究相对匮乏。本研究以供应链管理为视角,构建了伙伴关系、物流能力和供应链整合之间关系的概念模型。基于来自218家供应链上下游企业的调查数据,采用结构方程模型（SEM）的方法对上述概念模型进行了实证研究。研究结果显示：伙伴关系、物流能力对供应链整合均有显著的正向影响;同时结果显示,伙伴关系对物流能力也具有显著的正向影响,且透过物流能力,伙伴关系对供应链整合的间接影响高于其直接影响。此外研究结果还显示,不同规模及行业企业的伙伴关系和物流能力对供应链整合的作用大不相同。本文不仅为研究伙伴关系对供应链整合的影响路径和作用机理提供了一个新的视角,而且还为我国不同规模及行业企业如何利用伙伴关系和物流能力来提升供应链整合提供了决策的依据。     

企业社会责任视角下可持续性人力资源管理构架的理论探索

经济、社会与环境发展的强联系性和巨复杂性,要求企业建立可持续发展的理念和战略,即在追求经济绩效的同时,要兼顾与社会责任和生态环境的平衡.鉴于此,人力资源管理要从绩效目标理论架构,转换至经济绩效、社会责任和生态环境平衡的理论架构.在对人力资源管理的演化历程进行梳理的基础上,依据以往学者的人力资源系统模型,构建可持续性人力资源管理架构,并以企业社会责任和可持续性理论对该架构进行理论解释.最后,在此基础上提出相关研究命题,以期为进一步研究提供新的方向和视角.     

A Bias–Reduced Log–Periodogram Regression Estimator for the Long–Memory Parameter

In this paper, we propose a simple bias–reduced log–periodogram regression estimator, ^d_r, of the long–memory parameter, d, that eliminates the first– and higher–order biases of the Geweke and Porter–Hudak (1983) (GPH) estimator. The bias–reduced estimator is the same as the GPH estimator except that one includes frequencies to the power 2k for k=1,…,r, for some positive integer r, as additional regressors in the pseudo–regression model that yields the GPH estimator. The reduction in bias is obtained using assumptions on the spectrum only in a neighborhood of the zero frequency. Following the work of Robinson (1995b) and Hurvich, Deo, and Brodsky (1998), we establish the asymptotic bias, variance, and mean–squared error (MSE) of ^d_r, determine the asymptotic MSE optimal choice of the number of frequencies, m, to include in the regression, and establish the asymptotic normality of ^d_r. These results show that the bias of ^d_r goes to zero at a faster rate than that of the GPH estimator when the normalized spectrum at zero is sufficiently smooth, but that its variance only is increased by a multiplicative constant. We show that the bias–reduced estimator ^d_r attains the optimal rate of convergence for a class of spectral densities that includes those that are smooth of order s≥1 at zero when r≥(s−2)/2 and m is chosen appropriately. For s>2, the GPH estimator does not attain this rate. The proof uses results of Giraitis, Robinson, and Samarov (1997). We specify a data–dependent plug–in method for selecting the number of frequencies m to minimize asymptotic MSE for a given value of r. Some Monte Carlo simulation results for stationary Gaussian ARFIMA (1, d, 1) and (2, d, 0) models show that the bias–reduced estimators perform well relative to the standard log–periodogram regression estimator.