Job quality,industrial relations and the crisis in Europe

This paper reports results from recent Eurofound research on the impact of the crisis on industrial relations and working conditions in Europe, based on the output of Eurofound's European Working Conditions Observatory and European Industrial Relations Observatory and data from the European Working Conditions Survey. Overall, the crisis – even if it is sometimes difficult to separate the effect of the crisis from megatrends in working conditions and industrial relations – seems to have had an impact on both domains. With reference to industrial relations, the impact of the crisis has influenced actors, processes, and outcomes. Regarding working conditions, the results appear to be in line with the literature on the topic, which relates the crisis to an increase in job insecurity, a decrease in work intensity, in working hours, and in anti-social working time arrangements, and a general improvement in terms of health risks and related outcomes.     

Managers' Perceptions of their Identity: A Comparative Study between the Czech Republic and Britain

After a period of more that 40 years of Communism, the Czech Republic is in the midst of an economic transformation. One aspect of this transformation is the development of a new managerial ethos, important to manage the current infrastructural changes and ensure that Czech organizations are able to compete in international markets.
This paper reports research that examines what Czech managers think about themselves and their roles, and contrasts these perceptions with those of their British counterparts. Many of the concepts and development approaches being applied in the Czech Republic are closely related to concepts and development approaches in the West and have often been accepted unchallenged even though they are being applied in very different circumstances. The focus of this research was to understand how Czech and British managers view their jobs; how their different views relate to the techniques and approaches they adopt. The method chosen was discourse analysis applied to responses from a questionnaire, interviews and repertory grid technique. Using this approach a very different kind of understanding was gained in the way Czech managers think about management than has hitherto been assumed.
The research takes a matched group of Czech and British managers and contrasts their respective views. Our findings give important new insights for management and management development practice for both the Czech Republic and Great Britain.     

From the First to the Second Demographic Transition: An Interpretation of the Spatial Continuity of Demographic Innovation in France, Belgium and Switzerland

This article links spatialindicators of two demographic innovation wavesto historical and contemporary covariates ofboth a socio-economic and a cultural nature. The two waves of innovation correspond to theso-called first and second demographictransitions (FDT, SDT), respectively. Aconnection is made between the emergence ofspatial demographic patterns and A.J. Coale'sthree preconditions for innovation, i.e. readiness, willingness and ability(RWA-model) and to the influence of networks inshaping relatively stable regional subcultures. Since the RWA-model is of the bottleneck type, it is expected that the slowest moving ormost resistant condition will largely determinethe spatial outcome of the two demographictransitions. In the instances of Frenchdépartements, Belgian arrondissements andSwiss cantons, clear statistical associationsemerge between indicators of both FDT and SDTand cultural indicators. This suggests thatthe willingness condition, as reflected inregional subcultures, has been the dominantbottleneck in both waves of demographicinnovation. The Swiss evidence is, however,weaker than that for France and Belgium,despite the fact that, here too, associationsare in the expected direction.     

Economic and Institutional Context and Second Births in Seven European Countries

The extent to which mothers progress to a second child varies greatly between European countries. Although both institutional and economic context are believed to be partly responsible for these differences, available research on economic conditions and fertility mostly focuses on first births and studies on family policy and fertility have hitherto insufficiently addressed population heterogeneity. Combining longitudinal microdata from the Harmonized Histories with contextual data on labour market uncertainty and family policy, this paper uses discrete-time hazard models to analyse the impact of economic and institutional context on second birth hazards of 22,298 women in 7 European countries between 1970 and 2002. Particular attention is paid to variation in the contextual effects by level of education. We find that aggregate-level unemployment and temporary employment reduce second birth hazards, particularly for low- and medium-level educated women. Family policies are positively related to second birth hazards. Whereas family allowances stimulate second births particularly among low educated mothers, the positive effect of childcare is invariant by level of education.     

Technical progress and the work force in Czechoslovakia

The authors analyse likely changes in the structure of education and qualifications in the Czechoslovak work force during the next thirty years. They stress the low level of qualification, particularly among management, compared with other industrialized countries, and the impact that this is probably having on productivity and on exports. Over the next thirty years, they foresee increasing mechanization in agriculture and forestry, more mechanization and automation in industry, and in certain types of services, and in consequence, a large increase in demand for qualified personnel, especially scientists and technologists.     

Access to the labour market for gays and lesbians: Research review

ABSTRACT

This article reviews findings of scientific studies looking into the bias that gay men and lesbians face when accessing the labor market. Studies in this topic were scarce before year 2000, but a considerable body of literature appeared in the Western countries in the recent years. When summed up, the findings provide robust evidence that lesbians and gay men face negative bias when accessing employment. The magnitude of the bias varies considerably across contexts. Different labor market outcomes of gay men and lesbians are also partially caused by differences in household specialization between different-sex and same-sex households. Future research needs to address the contextual differences in bias against gay men and lesbians.     

The Scope for Fiscal Policy: A Case Study of Thailand

This article is concerned with the application of fiscal policy instruments in stabilisation policy. Theoretical and practical considerations suggest that the scope for fiscal policy may be limited, but analysis of the actual performance of Thailand shows that an active use has been made of it. Compared with advanced economies, the role of automatic stabilisers is relatively small; discretionary fiscal policy interventions have been more important. Particularly in the years after the Asian financial crisis fiscal policy has been actively used, first, under IMF programmes, to reduce aggregate demand, and later to stimulate the economy. The article focuses on the application of fiscal policy instruments, not on the impact of fiscal policy interventions on the real economy.