Insolvency Proceedings and Workers’Rights: the Italian Case

ABSTRACT: In this paper the author analyses different types of insolvency proceedings in the context of the Italian legal system, focusing on the possible effects of bankruptcy law on employment relationships. The concept of‘privileged workers’claims is discussed, taking into account their rank of preference as stated by statutory law and according to the interpretations offered by jurisprudence. One section is expressly devoted to the recent legislation providing a Guarantee Fund for severance allowance claims in case of insolvency, but also in the event of mere nonpayment by the employer. After having covered the concept of 'super-privileged claims', the paper discusses more widely possible forms of protecting workers in a situation of company crisis and links between social legislation on the one hand, and bankruptcy law on the other. Finally, the author emphasizes the more effective protection now offered by the Italian legal system to workers’claims, although the trade unions have considerable difficulty in keeping the workforce united when insolvency proceedings are opened.     

Workers’ Perception of Chemical Risks: A Focus Group Study

Workers’ perceptions with respect to health and safety at work are rarely taken into account when considering the development of prevention programs. The aim of this study was to explore workers’ perceptions of chemical risks at the workplace, in order to investigate the prerequisites for a workplace health program. A qualitative study was conducted involving seven focus groups of 5–10 participants (blue‐collar workers) each. All groups were homogeneous in terms of sex, work status, language, and company membership. Results showed that several factors have an important influence on workers’ perception of chemical risks. Workers assess risks by means of both sensory and empirical diagnosis and are concerned about the long‐term health consequences. They perceive the threat of chemical risks as high. Despite this, they are resigned to accepting the risks. Existing formal sources of information are rarely consulted because they are judged to be difficult to understand and not user friendly. Instead, workers tend to obtain information from informal sources. Communication problems with and lack of trust in prevention advisers and hierarchy are frequently mentioned. Workers feel that their specific knowledge of their working conditions and their proposals for practical, cost‐effective solutions to improve health and safety at the workplace are insufficiently taken into account. The use of focus groups yielded a useful insight into workers’ perceptions of chemical risks. Our findings suggest that training programs for prevention advisers should include topics such as understanding of workers’ perceptions, usefulness of a participatory approach, and communication and education skills.     

The Efffect of Work Interruptions on Women’s Wages

This paper examines the effects of work interruptions on women’s wages, focusing particularly on work interruptions to give birth. It also accounts for whether mothers return to work at their pre‐childbirth jobs after giving birth. The results show that work interruptions in general and work interruptions specifically to give birth reduce wages. However, the negative effects of work interruptions to give birth are at least partially eliminated when controlling for whether mothers return to work for their pre‐childbirth employers. Also, these effects are temporary and do not persist beyond the second year after returning to work.     

The Effect of Trade on Employment and Wages in Italian Industry

The paper analyses the labour market impact of international trade on the Italian manufacturing sector. Using data for a panel of manufacturing industries the effects of trade‐induced changes in sales on employment and wages are investigated. The evidence suggests that the industry adjustment to demand shocks took place mainly through employment changes. However, increased exposure to foreign competition had a small effect on the Italian labour market, while technological change seems to have a major role in explaining the increase in unemployment.     

Size and Characteristics of Foreign Immigration in Italy

ABSTRACT During the 1980s, Italy radically changed its position in the international migration system, from supplier of labour to user of foreign labour. But the nature of Italian immigration is different from that which has marked the post-war process of European development: new immigration flows are no longer an instrument of quantitative rebalancing of labour markets, but instead acquire a function of qualitative rebalancing in sectors where there appears to be a lack of labour supply in particular jobs and qualifications. This paper combines the information available from official sources with those obtainable by the numerous special surveys which have been carried on the phenomenon in the last few years. This framework allows us to underline — even with the limitations due to still-backward documentation — the characteristics of present immigration, by now firmly rooted in the country but still far from reaching a stable and definitive arrangement.     

Labour Policy and Determinants of Employment and Wages in a Developing Economy with Labour Shortage

Using data from a sample of 1,099 workers, this paper investigates the determinants of employment and wages for workers in the United Arab Emirates. The paper further examines the wage distribution and the decomposition of the wage gap between the public and the private sectors. Results of the study are consistent with the dual labour market theory and indicate that the labour market in the United Arab Emirates is segmented based on sectors (public versus private) and types of workers (nationals versus non‐nationals). The study concludes with a discussion of the implication of these findings for the effectiveness of labour and economic policy.     

Only Time Can Tell: Whether and When the Improvement in Career Development Opportunities Alleviates Knowledge Workers’ Emotional Exhaustion in the Chinese Context

Through extending the resource perspective, drawing on the temporal comparison theory, this study examines career development opportunities (CDOs), focusing on knowledge workers and considering the relative changes in CDOs before and after their job change in the Chinese context. Findings from a survey of 379 Chinese knowledge workers who have transferred their jobs at least once reveal that the improvement of CDOs can have a double‐edged‐sword effect on knowledge workers’ well‐being, shown as emotional exhaustion in this study. Although the improvement of CDOs negatively predicts knowledge workers’ emotional exhaustion in general, findings of a three‐way interaction reveal that offering more high‐quality CDOs can aggravate emotional exhaustion when knowledge workers have been working in their present position for a relatively long period, but have not received a pay rise. This study makes a theoretical contribution by introducing boundary conditions and testing their interactive influence. It helps broaden understanding of how CDOs can affect knowledge workers’ emotional exhaustion. It also has implications for enhancing the well‐being of knowledge workers, particularly in national and organizational contexts where there are significant skill shortages and retention problems.     

The Determinants of Foreign Multinational Enterprise Firms' Board Governance in Caribbean Offshore Island Economies

Using a unique sample of 171 listed firms in the Caribbean region, this paper explores the influence of post-entry ownership of foreign MNEs on the board composition of subsidiaries. Our findings reveal higher ownership is a means of enhancing the security of property rights while simultaneously creating a liability of foreignness. This causes subsidiaries to externally contract for resources, leading to the hiring of more lawyers and fewer accountants. The opposite is true for progressively lower levels of foreign MNE ownership. Firms' adoption of shareholder rights governance amplifies these findings, while state formal institutional quality reverses them.     

The Structure of Wages in the Netherlands, 1986–98

Abstract. For many OECD countries an increase in wage inequality has been documented since the early 1980s. This is often attributed to a general rise in the demand for skilled workers resulting from recent technological change. Using the Organization for Strategic Labour Market Research (OSA) Labour Supply data, this paper studies the wage structure in the Netherlands over the period 1986–98 and demonstrates that wage inequality did not increase to any significant extent in the Netherlands. Using the accounting framework proposed by Juhn et al. (Journal of Political Economy 101: 410–442, 1993), it is shown that the relatively stable wage structure until at least the late 1990s can be attributed mainly to returns to observable components, such as education and experience, while residual wage inequality is found to be of minor importance in explaining the Dutch wage structure. These estimates suggest that the demand for skill in the Netherlands is likely not to have been rising to the extent it did in many other countries over this period.     

Determinants of Relationship Quality in Importer–Exporter Relationships

Despite significant evidence pointing to the key role of relationship quality in solidifying commercial relationships, limited attention has been paid to its determinants in an international context. In an attempt to fill this research gap, our study examines the impact of asset specificity, role performance and cultural sensitivity on the quality of the relationships between importers and their foreign suppliers. It is based on a mailed survey involving 292 importing firms. Relationship quality is presented as a higher‐order concept that results in lower conflict and greater trust, commitment and satisfaction. The results indicate that asset specificity, role performance and cultural sensitivity play a significant positive role in building sound relationship quality. Several managerial implications are extracted from the study, as well as suggestions for future research.     

Changes in the Distribution of Male and Female Wages Accounting for Employment Composition Using Bounds

This paper examines changes in the distribution of wages using bounds to allow for the impact of nonrandom selection into work. We show that worst case bounds can be informative. However, because employment rates in the United Kingdom are often low, they are not informative about changes in educational or gender wage differentials. Thus we explore ways to tighten these bounds using restrictions motivated from economic theory. With these assumptions, we find convincing evidence of an increase in inequality within education groups, changes in educational differentials, and increases in the relative wages of women.     

Cooperation in the Face of Conflict: Effects of Top Managers’ Trust Beliefs in their Firms’ Major Suppliers

As with any relationships, those between buying firms and their major suppliers are likely to experience situations of conflict. When facing such situations, top managers tend to approach conflict either cooperatively or competitively. However, when and why top managers tend towards cooperation or competition is far from clear. This study proposes a novel link between the theory of cooperation and competition and the discounting principle of attribution theory to argue that it is top managers’ trust beliefs in their firms’ major suppliers that influences their intended approach to conflict. Using survey data from 140 C‐level managers and business owners, the authors develop and test a model that differentiates between two attributional dimensions of trust (competence and goodwill) and the specific relational conditions that influence how these attributions operate. The results indicate that top managers’ trust in their suppliers’ competence and goodwill is, in fact, decisive in determining how they intend to approach conflict. Further, the authors demonstrate that a top manager's trust belief in the supplier's goodwill is of particular relevance in driving the top manager to cooperate in the face of conflict. However, this link seems to be contingent on the specific conditions of the buyer–supplier relationship in question.     

A Multi-disciplinary Identification of Issues Associated with ‘Contracting’ in Market-oriented Health Service Reforms

Multi-disciplinary perspectives from operational research, management information systems, purposeful activity systems, accounting and finance, transaction-cost economics and organization learning are discussed in relation to `contracting' in the NHS following the recent reforms, applied within the general framework of soft-systems methodology. These are then used to frame questions for collecting information about contracting practices and issues. The data so collected suggest that the issues and activities associated with contracting can be grouped into five interacting categories of: strategy formation, making enabling arrangements, operational management of contracted activities, identifying and relating to stakeholders, and carrying forward organizational learning from experience. Each of the disciplinary perspectives attributes significance to specific forms in these five activities. The possibility of some multi-disciplinary linking of theoretical perspectives is demonstrated. Information and purposeful systems are central to this, being on the one hand created by social processes which define relevant information and corporate alignments of purpose, and on the other hand patterns of activity that can be evaluated in terms of contribution to these purposes, with properties of greater or lesser inhibition of innovation to improve purpose achievement. As a case study of an attempt at inter-disciplinary research, it demonstrates that interdisciplinary linkage can be made, though certain epistemological issues are skated over in the process. On the basis of the case study, some of the richness and insight of the different perspectives is lost in the process. The critical debate about the neutrality of soft-systems methodology is commented on in the light of the study.     

分析高层建筑受雷击的三种效应

~~分析高层建筑受雷击的三种效应@陈立新$福州市建发房地产开发公司!350007~~~~~~     

Optimal Pricing of Two Successive‐Generation Products with Trade‐in Options under Uncertainty

To entice consumers to purchase both current and next generation products, many manufacturers and retailers offer trade‐in programs that allow buyers of the first generation product to trade‐in the product and purchase the new generation product at a lower price. By considering the interactions between “forward‐looking” consumers and a firm when a trade‐in program is offered, we analyze a two‐period dynamic game to determine the optimal prices of two successive‐generation products in equilibrium, and examine the conditions under which trade‐in programs are beneficial to the firm. Our model incorporates market heterogeneity (valuation of the first generation product varies among the consumer population), product uncertainty (the incremental value of the new product is uncertain before its introduction), and consumers' forward‐looking behavior (consumers take future product valuation and prices into consideration when making purchasing decisions). With the trade‐in option, we show that consumers are willing to pay a price that is higher than their valuations of the current product. Furthermore, trade‐in programs are more beneficial to the firm when: (i) the durability of the current product is high; (ii) the market heterogeneity is low; or (iii) the uncertainty level (or the expected incremental value) of the new product is high. Finally, when the incremental value of the new product is more uncertain, consumers are more willing to purchase the current product because of the “option” value of the trade‐in programs and thus trade‐in programs can be more beneficial to the firm in this case.     

Determinants of Seeking and Avoiding Risk‐Related Information in Times of Crisis

This research is designed to provide insight into the psychological (e.g., threat appraisal or coping appraisal) and other determinants (e.g., information quality judgments or demographics) of risk information seeking or avoidance in times of an acute risk, as part of the process of increasing public resilience through adherence to risk mitigating advice. Data were collected via telephone interviews. A specialized agency interviewed 1,000 Dutch citizens, randomly confronted with one of eight fictitious, but realistic, acute risk and emergency situations. Results indicate that information seeking in an acute situation is anticipated by a less elaborate set of predictors (age and risk perception) than information seeking in a nonacute situation (age and risk perception, as well as educational level and social norm). Although risk perception is a predictor for risk information seeking, its predictive value for acute‐risk‐related behavior, as one might have assumed based on theories such as protection motivation theory (PMT) or the extended parallel process model (EPPM), appears to be limited. Implications for risk communication are discussed.     

An Analysis of Strategic Determinants,Learning and Decision‐Making in Sino‐British Joint Ventures

This paper examines how partners’ strategic objectives, inputs and competencies affect the learning they achieve in joint ventures and their ability to influence decision‐making in such ventures. Quantitative and qualitative research in 20 Sino‐British joint ventures permits an investigation of these factors for both British and Chinese joint venture partners. Findings indicate that the transfer by British partners of technology and managerial expertise to joint ventures enhances their ability to achieve their strategic objectives by influencing decisions in such ventures. The learning achieved by British partners depends on their commitment of strategic inputs to joint ventures and is therefore associated with their influence. The case of Chinese partners is different, because they look to learn from the knowledge and resource inputs provided by the British partners. They therefore rely more on legal ownership rights to retain an influence over joint venture decision‐making. The achievement of Chinese partners’ strategic objectives depends more critically on the quality of the partnership itself.     

Executives’ Views of Factors Affecting Governance Change in a Not‐for‐Profit Setting

Knowing the factors that executives deem critical to governance change can improve our understanding of how such changes come about and can help us evaluate those changes. Interviews with business and finance executives at 11 colleges reveal the importance to governance change of chief executive and board member leadership and interactions, as well as executive communication style. Costs are clear constraints to action, particularly since benefits are not quantified and are difficult to describe. Efforts to discuss governance with internal stakeholders require persistence to overcome narrow, individualized concerns. Communication about governance to external stakeholders is rare and represents a missed opportunity for stakeholder feedback and the development of trust. Executives appear willing to adopt governance forms without considering the idiosyncrasies of their institutional field, limiting the working definition of governance and its potential. For corporations and not‐for‐profit enterprises these findings hold implications for the context in which leadership is exercised and the shape of governance structures. They also pose a fundamental ethical dilemma for leaders to address.     

Problematizing ‘Relevance’ in the Business School: The Case of Leadership Studies

In recent years, the discourse of ‘relevance’ has risen to prominence in the university‐based business school. At the heart of this discourse is the suggestion that management researchers should align their research practices more closely with the needs of practitioners in external organizations. One important but under‐researched strand of this debate focuses on the way in which ‘relevance’ is pursued by business scholars via forms of practitioner engagement such as management consulting, corporate presentations, executive education and personal coaching. Drawing on extensive semi‐structured interviews, this paper explores the motivations, rewards and tensions experienced by leadership scholars in the process of engaging with practitioners. This study suggests that the pursuit of ‘relevance’ may come into conflict with norms of scholarly conduct, which in turn gives rise to a series of trade‐offs and compromises. Ultimately, the authors argue that the prevailing discourse of relevance provides an alibi for scholars to orient themselves towards practitioners in ways that contravene their academic identity and research ethos (whether post‐positivist, interpretivist or critical).     

Roy’s Safety‐First Portfolio Principle in Financial Risk Management of Disastrous Events

Roy pioneers the concept and practice of risk management of disastrous events via his safety‐first principle for portfolio selection. More specifically, his safety‐first principle advocates an optimal portfolio strategy generated from minimizing the disaster probability, while subject to the budget constraint and the mean constraint that the expected final wealth is not less than a preselected disaster level. This article studies the dynamic safety‐first principle in continuous time and its application in asset and liability management. We reveal that the distortion resulting from dropping the mean constraint, as a common practice to approximate the original Roy’s setting, either leads to a trivial case or changes the problem nature completely to a target‐reaching problem, which produces a highly leveraged trading strategy. Recognizing the ill‐posed nature of the corresponding Lagrangian method when retaining the mean constraint, we invoke a wisdom observed from a limited funding‐level regulation of pension funds and modify the original safety‐first formulation accordingly by imposing an upper bound on the funding level. This model revision enables us to solve completely the safety‐first asset‐liability problem by a martingale approach and to derive an optimal policy that follows faithfully the spirit of the safety‐first principle and demonstrates a prominent nature of fighting for the best and preventing disaster from happening.