Suchergebnisse

Presents five of the best papers from the human resource management and industrial relations track of the 2002 British Academy of Management Annual Conference, reflecting the diversity of the field. Concludes that employee relations in many western countries have undergone a significant transformation over the past two decades with a considerable disparity in the pay and conditions of the labour force and a growing gap between the "winners" and "losers". States, however, that within the European Union, while the collective strength of the workforce may have decreased, a whole raft of European legislation has enhanced individual employment rights.

The incorporation of the workplace leadership has been a recurrent theme in recent writings on British trade unionism. Several surveys have revealed the emergence, since the 1960s, of more full-time representatives and more elaborate hierarchies on the shop floor, amounting to a `bureaucratisation' of the workplace union organisation. The newly established tier of senior shop stewards, it is said, have become distant from the shop floor workers and their concerns, and have been drawn closer to management and national union officials. The paper explores this proposition by reference to an empirical study of local trade unionism in the coal industry. The organisation of workplace representatives in coal mining exhibits many of the trends which are said to be associated with the incorporation of the shop floor. Detailed examination of local NUM branch officials' relationship with managers, their members and full-time union officers in a sample of 35 collieries, however, revealed that the workplace leadership do not behave as the theory predicts. There was no evidence that they act against their members' interests and pursue, instead, those of management or their national union leaders. The paper ends by questioning the assumptions on which the theory of incorporation is based,.

Challenges the assumption implicit in much of the literature on women managers that their failure to progress can be explained solely in terms of the individual behaviour of women and their employers. Examines the characteristics of organizations in which women make their careers which are potent factors impeding female advancement. Draws attention to the effects of radical organizational change, and explores some of the consequences of this change for women managers through the in‐depth analysis of a "typical" case. Explores the complex process by which restructuring and managerial policy and practice eventually combined to undermine the organization's stated intent to expand significantly the number of women in management. Suggests that in‐depth analysis over time is required to understand the complex processes of change and its often unanticipated consequences for management careers.

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better health and well-being, new biomedicines, natural cosmeceuticals, environmental conservation, and sustainable energy sources. These societal needs stimulated the interest of researchers on the diverse and underexplored marine environments as promising and sustainable sources of biomolecules and biomass, and they are addressed by the emerging field of marine (blue) biotechnology. Blue biotechnology provides opportunities for a wide range of initiatives of commercial interest for the pharmaceutical, biomedical, cosmetic, nutraceutical, food, feed, agricultural, and related industries. This article synthesizes the essence, opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges encountered in marine biotechnology and outlines the attainment and valorization of directly derived or bio-inspired products from marine organisms. First, the concept of bioeconomy is introduced. Then, the diversity of marine bioresources including an overview of the most prominent marine organisms and their potential for biotechnological uses are described. This is followed by introducing methodologies for exploration of these resources and the main use case scenarios in energy, food and feed, agronomy, bioremediation and climate change, cosmeceuticals, bio-inspired materials, healthcare, and well-being sectors. The key aspects in the fields of legislation and funding are provided, with the emphasis on the importance of communication and stakeholder engagement at all levels of biotechnology development. Finally, vital overarching concepts, such as the quadruple helix and Responsible Research and Innovation principle are highlighted as important to follow within the marine biotechnology field. The authors of ...

This study examined the effectiveness of a stepped approachfor increasing response rates to a mailed follow-up smoking survey among newly enlisted women in the navy. The effect of the stepped approach on response rates and on the characteristics of respondents was evaluated. Also, costs were estimated for each of the steps to determine their relative benefits. Results showed that the stepped approach was effective in more than doubling the survey response rate among smokers. Reluctant respondents did not differ from on-time respondents in terms of demo- graphics or baseline smoking, although nonrespondents were less educated and heavier smok ers than on-time and reluctant respondents. Strategies documented here could well apply to sur vey efforts with other hard-to-reach populations.