Qualified Employment in the Third Sector in Portugal

Departing from regulation theories and varieties of capitalism school this article focuses on employment in the third sector. We start by discussing the emergence of the new third sector in the western world. In the second part of the article, we provide an overview of the third sector in Portugal today. The ideal values of the organizations of the third sector, namely the principles of democratic and participative management, the primacy of people and work over capital, and the centrality of social capital, frame the discussion of empirical data regarding the wage relation that characterizes the University of Porto (UP) graduates currently working in the third sector. We end with a critical discussion of the optimistic expectations and projections that loom over the third sector regarding the construction of an alternative model of social and economic development based on justice and equity.     

Is occupational stress associated with work engagement ?

The occupational stress is associated with dissatisfaction, excessive demand at work and personal factors. Those factors can reduce work performance and can predispose workers to various diseases. Workers' health may be protected if there is encouragement to face challenges, which may lessen the impact on psychological and somatic stress and thus have greater personal and professional satisfaction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between occupational stress and work engagement. Participated in this study 457 male and female workers of a metallurgical industry. Subjects answered personal data, and the Job Stress Scale and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were applied. Results showed an association between occupational stress and work engagement (P=0,001). The way the individual deals with his frustrations, or rather the work engagement, is associated with the occupational stress.     

Ergonomic work analysis as a tool of prevention for the occupational safety and health management system

This paper introduces the Ergonomic Work Analysis as a relevant instrument to identify the risks in occupational environments through the investigation of factors that influence the relationship between the worker and the productive process. It draws a parallel between the several aspects of risk identification in traditional tools of Health and Safety Management and the factors embraced by the Ergonomic Work Analysis, showing that the ergonomic methodology is able to go deeper in the scenarios of possible incident causes. This deepening enables the establishment of a relationship between the work context and the upcoming damage to the physical integrity of the worker. It acts as a complementary instrument in the traditional approach to the risk management. In order to explain the application of this methodology in a preventive way, it is presented a case study of a coal mill inspector in a siderurgic company.     

Specification and testing of multiplicative time-varying GARCH models with applications

In this article, we develop a specification technique for building multiplicative time-varying GARCH models of Amado and Teräsvirta (2008, 2013). The variance is decomposed into an unconditional and a conditional component such that the unconditional variance component is allowed to evolve smoothly over time. This nonstationary component is defined as a linear combination of logistic transition functions with time as the transition variable. The appropriate number of transition functions is determined by a sequence of specification tests. For that purpose, a coherent modelling strategy based on statistical inference is presented. It is heavily dependent on Lagrange multiplier type misspecification tests. The tests are easily implemented as they are entirely based on auxiliary regressions. Finite-sample properties of the strategy and tests are examined by simulation. The modelling strategy is illustrated in practice with two real examples: an empirical application to daily exchange rate returns and another one to daily coffee futures returns.     

“It Seems That Things Take Care of Themselves”: Routines in Busy Family Lives

In this study we analyze how 15 working mothers talk about the ways in which routines contribute to sustaining the accomplishment of their domestic work. In particular, we analyze the routines’ function of coordinating multiple lines of activity, their property of anticipating the unexpected and incorporating alternative responses, and their character of being a local resource for practical thinking and action. We then discuss the role that moral personal positioning and ideologies of parenthood, time management, and efficiency might have in accounting for the variety and diversification of routines among families.     

The Effect of Firm and Host Country Characteristics on the Choice of Entry Mode: Empirical Evidence from Spanish Firms

When investing abroad firms must choose betweengoing alone or with a partner – the so-calledownership structure decision. Additionally,firms can enter a new country by acquisitionsor by greenfield investments – the foreignestablishment mode decision. These twodecisions have traditionally been analyzedseparately in the literature on entry mode.What is more, this literature has much lessanalyzed hybrid entry modes, like partialacquisitions. The aim of this paper is toanalyze how the different factors analyzed inprior research influence the choice of entrymode when jointly taking into account fouralternative entry modes: greenfield whollyowned subsidiaries, greenfield joint ventures,full acquisitions and partial acquisitions. Theempirical analysis was carried out byestimating a multinomial logit model over asample of FDIs made by Spanish firms. Ourresults also contribute to the knowledge ofspecific patterns in the choice of entry modeby firms from late investor countries, likeSpain.     

Networks within Industrial Districts: Organising Knowledge Creation and Transfer by Means of Moderate Hierarchies

This paper furnishes evidence of innovative modes of organisationof inter-firm relationships and knowledge management within industrialdistricts. With the aid of a district firm, we first highlight the marked tendency among the largest companies to eschew an exclusively endogenous innovative process. Next, we analyse how the leading firm can play an active role within a network by assigning outside its boundaries tasks that were once undertaken in-house. This happens gradually with the moderate hierarchisation of originally destructured network relationships. In its attempt to organise innovative modes of design and manufacturing, without losing control and strategic legitimisation, the leading firm elects a coordinating agent withdirect responsibility over a selected team of specialist suppliers.     

Educational responses to immigrant students in Madrid

During the last few years, changes in the Spanish educational system have had a far reaching impact. Several factors have been critical: (1) the progressive decentralization of education by the government, now a responsibility of regional governments; (2) the extension of compulsory education to the age of 16; and finally (3) the increase in the number of immigrant students, which has significantly added to the existing cultural diversity. The enrolment of immigrant students in Spanish schools is a relatively recent phenomenon (starting 15 years ago) when compared with other European countries. Madrid is the region in Spain with the largest number of students. As most of these students were born outside of Spain, we cannot yet speak of a second generation. The research described here investigated how the educational system in Madrid confronted the challenge of an increasing number of immigrant students. The institutional response was the Madrid Regional Government’s Compensatory Education Regional Plan. This encompasses several measures, which are described here. After a critical analysis of educational policies pertaining to immigrant pupils, the paper suggests ways of overcoming a purely compensatory approach. Intercultural education plays a key role is such considerations.