This study, first published in 1997, examines the relationship between the style of management used and the level of productivity, measured in terms of the organization's financial stability. Other variables examined include the age of the top level managers, their educational level, the size and age of the organization, and the organization's physical parameters. By determining whether or not productivity is affected by the use of a participative style of management, the author is laying the groundwork for making companies more competitive.

This insightful Handbook examines how labor unions across the world have experienced and responded to the growth of neo-liberalism.Since the 1970s, the spread of neo-liberalism across the world has radically reconfigured the relationship between unions, employers and the state. The contributors highlight that this is the major cause and effect of union decline and argue that if there is to be any union revitalisation and return to former levels of influence, then unions need to respond in appropriate political and practical ways. Written in a clear and accessible style, the Handbook examines unions' efforts to date in many of the major economies of the world, providing foundations for understanding each country. Policy makers, analysts, academics, researchers and advanced students in employment, industrial and labor relations as well as political economy will find this unique Handbook an important resource to understanding the contemporary plight and activity of labor unions. Contributors include: S. Ashwin, M. Atzeni, J. Bailey, D. Beale, B. Bruno, D.-o. Chang, S. Contrepois, F.L. Cooke, P. Dibben, H. Dribbusch, B. Fletcher Jr., G. Gall, P. Ghigliani, R. Hurd, J. Kelly, J. McIlroy, R. Munck, E. Noronha, D. Peetz, T. Schulten, R. Trumka, L. Turner, A. Wilkinson, G. Wood

German unification brought fundamental, often traumatic changes for the people in eastern Germany. Women as a group were arguably more deeply affected by the changes than any other, and in one area in particular: that of work, which had far-reaching effects on them and their families' economic situation. Rachel Alsop critically examines the processes behind women's changing relationship to the labor market in eastern Germany following the collapse of state socialism and the transition to a market economy. By the 1980s women made up virtually half of the East German work force. The collapse of the GDR transformed the field of work, drastically diminishing the general demand for labor. Yet while economic and political restructuring reduced the volume of both male and female employment, it was women who bore the brunt of unemployment. In the immediate transitional period a re-masculinization of the workforce was evident, with women constituting the large part of the unemployed. Using an extensive range of both quantitative and qualitative data, the author explores the gender dynamics of the social, economic, and political restructuring of eastern Germany, thereby producing an important new context in which to examine contemporary debates on gender and work.

This book provides an analysis of theoretical and empirical researches on the effects of remittances and brain drain on the development of less developed countries (LDCs). It analyzes the most recent global, regional and national data as well as the arguments for and against the emigration of highly skilled personnel and remittances, thereby highlighting policies aimed at optimizing the link between migration and development. The book examines in depth the arguments against "brain drain", namely the loss of skilled labor, wasted public investment in higher education, and reduced tax revenues. It also presents the arguments in favor, emphasizing on the transfer of scientific knowledge, the incentive effect of increased education spending, and participation in international networks. It addresses the central issue of emigration of medical personnel from developing countries and its consequences on the population.The book focuses on the effects of remittances on poverty and inequalities. They improve health conditions, raise education levels and empower women. Positive effects include the stabilizing function of remittances and the improvement of external accounts. Other effects are subject to conflicting assessments such as the reduction of labor supply and the "Dutch disease". The focus is on institutions who integrate economic, social and political incentives in order to establish remittances at the heart of development policies.The book provides a reference for students and research centers devoted to development economics, centers for international migration studies, and research units focusing on population, migration, and development.

This book examines the economic, social and political thought of two highly influential cross-disciplinary contributors to the debate in the United Kingdom about welfare economics, social welfare, nationalisation and public policy. Active between the 1880s and the 1930s, their many books, papers, lectures and speeches shaped the discourse on heterodox economics, social democracy and the managed economy. The Webbs sat on Royal Commissions, permeated local and central government, and were instrumental in the creation of the London School of Economics. This book discusses and assesses their contribution to the broad topics of inequality, poverty, unemployment, freedom, capitalism, socialism, constitutional reform, social evolution and the historical school. Issues such as these remain at the forefront of contemporary discussions not just in Britain but throughout the world.

Over the last two decades or so, a number of developing countries have become important suppliers of manufactured goods. A good deal of these goods are produced under extremely poor working conditions, incompatible with the fundamental rights and freedoms. However, WTO rules do not allow restrictions on imports of such goods, and the ILO hardly ever sanctions violations of international labor standards. On the one hand, this leaves exporting countries free to compromise on labor protection in order to enhance their competitiveness on foreign markets. On the other hand, importing countries are obliged to keep their markets open for goods produced under substandard labor conditions. This gives rise to the question of whether the rules of the multilateral trading system should be linked to international labor standards. This study argues that there are two trade-related reasons for establishing such a link. The first one is commonly referred to as social dumping. GATT rules enshrine the principles that should govern international trade: fairness and responsibility. These principles should also apply where trade meets labor protection. Exporting goods made under substandard labor conditions is unfair and distorts trade. It would therefore be consistent to make social dumping actionable. The other reason concerns the responsibility of importing countries. Increased imports of goods produced under substandard labor conditions are an incentive for the exporting country to produce more goods under the same labor conditions, and ship them to the same importing country. This results in a proliferation of violations of labor standards, for which the importing country shares the responsibility. There is a need to adopt a link between trade and labor standards enabling the importing country to cap imports in order to escape the blame.

Originally published in 1978 Urbanization and Labour Markets is a useful companion for those studying in geography, economics or development studies. The book provides a simple guide to the subject of labour in cities in underdeveloped countries. It also set out the major controversies relating to urban labour markets in developing countries and focuses in detail to work which goes on outside large-scale firms. Migration and population growth is considered in some detail and proposals for different ways of seeing the 'informal' sector are discussed. This book will be of use to undergraduates in the areas of geography, economics and development studies.

The sports agent has become a highly significant figure in contemporary sport business. The role of the agent is essential to our understanding of labour markets and labour relations in an increasingly globalised sports industry. Drawing on extensive empirical research into football around the world, this book explains what agents do, how their role has changed, and why this is important for future sport business. Offering analysis from economic, legal, social and historical perspectives, the book explores key topics such as: the history of sports agents including the emergence of the modern agent in US sport typologies and demographic profiles of agents in football valuations and organisational analysis of leading European agents and agencies relations between agents and clubs future directions for research into sports agents. Focusing on the major European leagues, this book goes further than any other in illuminating an important but under-researched aspect of contemporary sport business. It is a valuable resource for any student, researcher or policy-maker with an interest in sport business, sport management, sport policy, the economics of sport or labour economics.

This comprehensive and authoritative book offers a global approach to the modern economics of the family, family law and family policy. Beginning with the division of labour in the family, this book deals with the economics of marriage, the demand for children, inter-generational relationships, and the economics of inheritance. The family is analysed using the theory of utility maximisation assuming that individuals wish to achieve the greatest possible satisfaction with limited resources and imperfect knowledge. The family is examined from both long and short term perspectives, and it is assumed that the family is cooperative with incentives for altruistic behaviour greater than in any other social group. Francisco Cabrillo then develops the analysis to include a discussion of the economics of family policy, an area not widely discussed in the existing literature, with special reference to the European Union. He makes use of simple and clear analytical models, such as neoclassical optimization and game theory, to explain the rationality of individual behaviour in the family and the responses to the incentives created by public policies. The Economics of the Family and Family Policy will be essential reading for economists interested in the family, public policy as well as sociologists and policymakers.

The India Migration Report 2017 examines forced migration caused by political conflicts, climate change, disasters (natural and man-made) and development projects. India accounts for large numbers of internally displaced people in the world. Apart from conflicts and disasters, over the years development projects (including urban redevelopment and beautification), often justified as serving the interests of the people and for public good, have caused massive displacements in different parts of the country, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. The interdisciplinary essays presented here combine a rich mix of research methods and include in-depth case studies on aspects of development-induced displacement affecting diverse groups such as peasants, religious and ethnic minorities, the poor in urban and rural areas, and women, leading to their exclusion and marginalization. The struggles and protests movements of the displaced groups across regions and their outcomes are also assessed. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of development studies, economics, sociology and social anthropology and migration studies.

Labour markets are becoming more dynamic in response to pressures from globalisation, new technologies and trade agreements, as well as cross-border migration, inter-generation differences, changing education imperatives and employer expectations. By focusing on several Asia Pacific countries, this book explores the differences in their workforces: ageing, or abundant in labour but lacking in skilled employees. One similarity these countries share is the difficulty in attracting and retaining employees with the required skillset and capabilities, and these constraints can stymie national economic growth and long term development. This book brings together national and international perspectives on employability challenges faced by selected countries in the Asia Pacific region. While the region is forecast to enjoy high growth in the coming decade, a recurring challenge is addressing skill shortages and ensuring effective transition from training colleges and universities into employment. Consequently, the book focuses on the roles of multiple stakeholders, primarily: governments, education providers and employers - in more effectively addressing these key socio-economic challenges.

This title, originally published in 1925, provides a scientific exploration of some of the forms of co-operative organisation which had attained considerable development in other countries, but were little known to English students of the movement. This account of the co-operative movement in Italy will be of interest to students of economic democracy and economic history.

Originally published in 1978. The present study had grown out of the deliberations of wage policy at the 1971 Congress of LO, the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions. For many years the LO had pursued a policy of solidarity in wage policy - a policy which sought to relate pay to the nature of the work which an employee carried out, and not to the capacity or ability of the employer to pay. Several issues related to this policy are explored. This study was extremely controversial when first published in Sweden, and will therefore be of great interest to students of economic history and democracy.

This work, originally published in 1989, examines a highly important phenomenon: the growth of profit-sharing and share-ownership schemes for employees within the company. The Origins of Economic Democracy traces the origins and developments of such schemes internationally, and presents an explanatory framework for understanding their emergence. Both legislation and economic conditions play key roles in determining the popularity of such schemes for companies and their employees. The subject of profit-sharing is of vital importance to companies endeavouring to improve their financial performance while increasing the degree of job satisfaction and organizational loyalty of staff members.

During the last two decades, rapid economic growth and development in India has been based upon the mass employment of informal labour. Using case studies from three urban regions, this book examines this growth in modern India's cities and towns. It argues that India has undergone a process of uneven and combined development during its integration with the world economy, leading to a distorted form of urban development. This book is about work and resistance in India's massive 'informal economy'. It looks at the growth of informal labour in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi during an era of neoliberal economic policymaking. Going beyond mainstream accounts, it argues that India's rapid economic development has been based upon the mass employment of workers on low wages who lack basic social protection and rights at work. It discusses how urban development in India is characterised by a combination of industrialisation, industrial relocation, restructuring and informalisation. Departing from some existing studies of de-industrialisation, it re-frames informalisation as a process that complements, rather than contradicts, contemporary industrialisation in rapidly-emerging economies. The book adopts a 'classes of labour' approach, classifying each case of informal labour as a specific 'form of exploitation': as a different way for employers to lower production costs, control workers and increase enterprise flexibility. Offering a critique of existing data on the measurement and monitoring of informal labour and employment, the book is relevant to students and scholars of Development Studies, International Political Economy and South Asian Studies.

Across the industrialized and developing world, education and training are regarded as paramount to economic growth, but this view is rarely questioned or analysed. This major book is an in-depth multi-disciplinary investigation of the link between modern economies and education and training systems.Education, Training and the Global Economy takes issue with the notion that simply more or better education and training will inevitably bring economic success. The authors examine theoretical approaches to education and training before surveying empirical data and our knowledge of current skills trends in the global economy. The institutional and historical determinants of routes to low or high skill formation in industrialized economies are thoroughly considered. Particular attention is paid to the new routes to skill formation found in the dynamic Pacific Rim economies. This book will be welcomed by researchers, policymakers and students concerned with training, education and labour economics.

Updated Edition of Best Seller!

More than three billion people, nearly half of humankind, live on less than two-and-a-half U.S. dollars per person per day. Studies have shown repeatedly that the main and often the sole asset of the poor is their labor. It follows that to understand global poverty one must understand labor markets and labor earnings in the developing world. Excellent books exist on ending world poverty that discuss in depth many important aspects of economic development but do not focus on employment and self-employment, work and non-work. Working Hard, Working Poor fills in where the other books leave off. Issues of analyzing poverty and low earnings in the developing world are quite different from those in the developed world. The discourse in the developed world is about incentive effects of social welfare programs, cultures of poverty, single-parenthood, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, ill health, mental illness, domestic violence, and the like. But in the developing world, different issues predominate, such as own-account work and household enterprises, agricultural work, casual employment, and informal work. And some of the policy issues-stimulating economic growth, harnessing the energies of the private sector, increasing paid employment, and raising the returns to self-employment-take a different twist. This book shows how people in poverty work, what has been effective in helping the poor earn their way out of poverty, and how readers might help.

Market Liberalizations and Emigration From Latin America provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the era of liberalization in Latin America, focusing in particular on labor markets and emigration from the region. Starting in 1980, liberalization in Latin America was expected to improve market functioning, efficiency, and welfare. Instead, it yielded slower growth, unexpectedly high levels of unemployment and income inequality, flat or falling wages, an increase in non-tradeable (service sector) and informal activity, and, finally, waves of emigration from Mexico, Central America, and Ecuador, among other countries. This book provides a heterodox narrative explanation of why the orthodox economic model that underwrote the standard 'trickle-down' account served more to obscure and obfuscate than to explain and clarify the state-of-affairs. The book investigates the impact of the global-scale liberalizations of markets for goods and physical and finance capital and the mere national-scale liberalization of regional labor markets, arguing that these asymmetric liberalizations, together, resulted in labor market failure and contributed in turn to the subsequent, undocumented migrant flow. The ultimate effect of the skewed scale of market liberalizations in Latin America disproportionately benefited capital at the expense of labor. Market Liberalizations and Emigration From Latin America will be of interest to researchers of economics and development in Latin America.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted in India with the multiple objectives of providing employment in a rights-based framework, addressing rural poverty, checking migration, and building rural infrastructure. As such, every year around 15-20 per cent of households in India overall and 30 per cent in rural India receive some form of employment share under the MGNREGA programme. This volume looks at various aspect of the scheme, its linkage with employment, agricultural wages, livelihood and food security, gender issues, and migration in rural India. It also discusses challenges in implementation, hurdles and the relative successes of the scheme. Based on primary survey data from 16 major states in the country, the findings of the study provide key insights into MGNREGA and assess the implications for other welfare-oriented programmes. Rich in empirical data, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political economy, economics, agriculture, rural development and sociology, as well as policymakers and nongovernmental organisations.

The book, first published in 1983, examined whether the Yugoslavs' extensive implementation of their principle of self-management by small work units was costly in terms of economic efficiency. Were they atomizing their firms into inefficiently small fragments? Was the system of worker self-management appropriate only for small firms? Can a modern industrial enterprise of efficient scale, indeed very large scale, by run that way? In order to answer these questions, the author applies to large firms in former Yugoslavia the transactions cost analysis developed by the economist Oliver Williamson.

First published in 1975, Workers' Participation in Industry provides a fresh perspective on a highly significant issue. Its principal argument is that developments in workers' participation and control cannot be satisfactorily understood except by reference to broader questions concerning the exercise of power in industry and in society at large. The book's approach is sociological and explanatory, and it is written for the general reader as well as for students and specialists on both sides of industry.

This title, originally published in 1986, explores the political and economic conditions of the 1980s, and reflects the world-wide interest in industrial democracy. Each chapter analyses the main adaptations in policy, theory and experimentation that have occurred in industrial democracy in the 1980s. In particular, the role of managers is examined in depth and detail, since these personnel have been responsible for a number of recent initiatives. The themes covered are vital for all those seeking new directions in the reform of modern industrial relations in the late 1980s and into the 1990s.

This book, first published in 1973, sets out the reason why workers' control is the necessary alternative to the present system. It describes the struggle of the workers through their organizations to achieve a greater control over their lives; and it discusses the practical steps which need to be taken to achieve complete workers' control. Practicality is the keynote of this book, which starts from the reality of the 1970's and progresses towards the essence of socialism - workers' control.