• Opsomming: Die 1973 vloedgolf van stakings in Durban was vir die meeste mense 'n totaal onverwagte gebeurtenis. Met meer as 60 000 swart werkers daarby betrokke het die gebeure groot besorgdheid by privaat maatskappye, die staat en die publiek meegebring. In hierdie artikel word die aanleidende gebeure tot die stakings en die stakings self ontleed. Daar word gewys op die komplekse wisselwerking tussen ekonomiese en politieke faktore as oorsake daarvan. Die stakings word ook geplaas in die breëre konteks van die groei van 'n swart vakbondbeweging m die toename in sosio-politieke konflik. ; • Summary: The 1973 Durban strike wave was for most people a totally unexpected event. With more than 60 000 black workers involved, it was a major cause for concern among the company owners, state officials and the public. This article evaluates the 1973 Durban strike wave and the events leading up to it. It is argued that the strike wave was the result of a combination of factors, ranging from increased inflationary pressures to a complex chain of political developments. The strike wave should be viewed in the context of the emergence of the black trade union movement and of increased socio-political conflict.
Bibliography: pages 272-298. ; This study is an attempt to assess the degree to which strikes and stayaways in South Africa are related to broader political developments. Traditional theories of industrial conflict are first evaluated. This is followed by a direct study of industrial conflict in relation to wider political developments in South Africa in the 1970-87 period. The broad themes emerging from these chapters are then compared to established theories pertaining to strike action. The conclusion reached is that certain aspects of theory are of relevance to the South. African situation, but none are adequate in their entirety. It is noted that it is important to include theories covering the nature of broader society to make possible a coherent explanation as to the nature of strikes and stayaways in South Africa. The conclusions reached verify the stated hypothesis that political factors play an important role in determining the nature of strikes and stayaways. Furthermore, it appears evident that this relationship has become stronger over the 1970-87 period, especially following the declaration of the State of Emergency which has severely curtailed most other avenues of peaceful protest.
In: Wood , G & Devine , J 2017 , Sharing the well : towards sustained eradication of extreme poverty in Bangladesh . in J Devine , G Wood , Z Ali & S Alam (eds) , Extreme Poverty, Growth and Inequality in Bangladesh . Practical Action Publishing , pp. 1-10 .
This chapter uses two metaphors to explore the moral and practical dimensions of extreme poverty eradication. The first metaphor, 'Leaving no-one behind', currently dominates policy discussions and broadly sees the eradication of extreme poverty as the consequence of economic growth and prosperity. In contrast the chapter outlines an alternative approach, captured in the 'sharing the well' metaphor, which focuses much more on redistribution and rights. The chapter argues that although both approaches are laudable, their differences are important. Crucially, the 'Sharing the well' approach, although politically challenging, has roots in values shared by the people of Bangladesh. This arguments helps contextualize the different chapters of the book.
This special issue explores changes in the nature of tripartite arrangements between firms, governments and organized labour across the last century, focusing on their post-1945 heyday. Although tripartism has its origins at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the post-1945 long boom represented an historical high-water mark that may now be seen as quite distinct from our own long period of volatility and crisis. Historical concerns are frequently stimulated by those of the present and this is especially the case in contemporary history. Anglo-Saxon historians may feel that the age of tripartism is at an end, but the contributions within this issue show that although this may accurately reflect current perceptions, tripartism continues , albeit often in weak forms, in other national and transnational contexts; its history therefore retains contemporary resonance. In our present age, it is commonly assumed that the relative power of employers has increased at the expense of government – the central co-ordinating actor in tripartism – and organized labour. Within the firm, not only workers, but also traditional managers have been displaced by assertive investors and allied to them, a new managerial class that has little emotional capital sunk in the firm other than as a vehicle for shareholder value maximization or release, and personal enrichment. From the business historian's viewpoint, these assumptions raise a number of issues surrounding long term trends and diversity in the nature of the capitalist ecosystem within which tripartism is located. In this connection, there are four alternative points of view on broad approaches to labour management. The first, rooted in the then apparent solidity of the British postwar tripartite settlement, was that the incorporation of labour's institutions was structurally essential to the state's role in avoiding or genuinely resolving crises. The second sees tripartism as very much an historical exception, representing to a large extent a product of a very specific set of historic circumstances around the Great Depression and the post-World War Two long boom. The third, a variant of the second, would see historic compromises between state, the firm, and workers as a reflection of the thirty year period of relative global prosperity and growth which had deeper historic roots stretching back at least into the Nineteenth Century. The fourth highlights national diversity in global capitalism and views the labour management options adopted according not only to temporal trends but also to such dimensions as space, scale, and global centre-periphery relations. The latter view implies that elements of post-war compromises may persist, even if, within many of the advanced societies, they do so in dilute form.
This study represents an assessment of key issues relating to the labour market based on survey research conducted in an Eastern Cape secondary urban centre. This study was conducted at a time when South Africa was undergoing rapid social, economic and political transition. The primary focus of this study is on the specific implications of structural unemployment. Key sub-dimensions include the nature of divisions in the labour market, the extent of migrancy, survival strategies by the structurally unemployed, and perceptions of the union movement at a time when the latter's role has become increasingly institutionalised.
This chapter examines contemporary labor-management relations in autocratic regimes, drawing on two sets of countries, namely transitional peripheral economies in Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) and hierarchical market economies in Latin America (Colombia and Honduras), for analysis. We discuss the political economy, work, and labor relations of these countries, highlighting the role of the state, business, and international non-government organizations. We also take into account the impact of large-scale (often in millions) migration of workers both internally within the country and cross-border. It is important to note that, just as there are different types of democratic systems, there are also different types of autocratic regimes with distinct political, economic, and social policy orientations, and this directly impacts the nature of labor relations. Under Latin American right-wing authoritarianism, a primary focus is on supporting a relatively small property-owning elite, and any countervailing worker power is seen as a direct attack on the latter. Even if workers have employment rights under the law, this zero-sum game view frequently results in extra-legal attacks on worker activists and their representatives, making union organization an extremely dangerous business. In contrast, the Central Asian autocracies, business elites are tied up within extended clan networks. Especially within Uzbekistan, a much closer emphasis has been placed on the provision of a critical mass of jobs as a means of buying political stability. Unions have been afforded a place in the system both for historical reasons and as proof of an ability to create a critical mass of decent work; at the same time, there is little room for union autonomy.
This article looks at business and society on the transitional periphery from a starting point rooted in the international business literature. Many transitional periphery countries have rich natural resource endowments or prosperous diasporas, making it relatively easy to attract inward FDI, chronic institutional weaknesses and policy failures notwithstanding. At the same time, such windfalls may dilute incentives for institution building or reform. We review trends emerging from the most recent scholarly work in the area, and highlight potential research agendas for the future.
This paper investigates knowledge transfer (KT) of human resource management (HRM) across strategic partnerships in the Brazilian automotive industry, and the contextual factors impacting on KT within the supply chain. Case-study research in automotive companies and suppliers in Brazil is used to illustrate how in automotive industries, relationships with suppliers have traditionally been viewed as close, strategic partnerships, but over time, there has been a move towards more attenuated, supply chains, involving a shift towards more remote suppliers for basic components, and arms length relationships with them. In turn, this has impacted on how knowledge on HR has been transferred from manufacturers to suppliers. Both strategic partnerships and KT have been affected by internal drives towards cost cutting and talent retention, and external factors such as global competition through cheap imports, legislation, taxes, and unions. Evidence on the sometimes contradictory attitudes towards KT contributes towards the broader literatures on international HRM and KT in emerging economies, while the gradual unwinding of relationships has implications for policy and practice.
This article examines the rise and decline of tripartite experiments in southern Africa, focusing on South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia, where tripartism emerged as part of the broader processes of democratisation and embedding democratic institutions. Why did these experiments largely fail to achieve the gains for labour that might have been anticipated? In each case, the lack of success can be ascribed to the ecosystemic dominance of neo-liberalism, returning growth fuelled by higher commodities prices, the changing structure of elites, dominant partyism, and structural weaknesses in both organised business and the labour movement.
• Opsomming: In hierdie artikel word die aandag gevestig op Grahamstad, 'n sekondêre stedelike sentrum in die Oos-Kaap waar massa-opstand, soos ook elders in Suid-Afrika in die 1980's, plaasgevind het. Daar word gebruik gemaak van die mondelinge historiese metode en die artikel is derhalwe gebaseer op beskrywings van aktiviste. Na 'n algemene oorsig van ontwikkelings gebaseer op beide dokumentêre en mondelinge bronne, word veral aandag gegee aan spesifieke sub-dimensies van vyf geselekteerde aktiviste se verhale. Dit het betrekking op hul politieke verbintenisse, insluitend hul vroeëre organisatoriese betrokkenheid, hul rol in die ondergrondse weerstand, hul ondervindings in aanhouding sonder verhoor en hul terugkeer na hul eie gemeenskappe. ; • Summary: Employing an oral history methodology, this article is based on activists' accounts of the mass insurrection that took place throughout South Africa in the 1980s, focusing on Grahamstown, a secondary urban centre in the Eastern Cape Province. After a general overview of developments drawing on both documentary and oral sources, particular attention is accorded to certain sub-dimensions of the activists' stories, based on the personal testimonies of five selected individuals. These refer to their political socialization, including their early organizational involvement, their role in the underground resistance, and their experiences of incarceration without trial and of returning to their communities.
In light of growing scholarly works on business failure across the social science domains, it is surprising that past studies have largely overlooked how extreme environmental shocks and 'black swan' events such as those caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and other global crisis, can precipitate business failures. Drawing insights from the current literature on business failure and the unfolding event of COVID-19, we highlight the paradoxes posed by novel exogenous shocks (that is, shocks that transcend past experiences) and the implications for SMEs. The pandemic has accelerated the reconfiguration of the relationship between state and markets, increasing the divide between those with political connections and those without, it may pose new legitimacy challenges for some players even as others seem less concerned by such matters, whilst experiential knowledge resources may be both an advantage and a burden.
Many resource-rich countries have experienced a range of negative economic and political effects from natural resource extraction, often lumped together as the 'resource curse'. This article investigates to what extent expectations of future natural resource booms in São Tomé e Príncipe and Madagascar led to 'resource curse' effects, even though these countries did not experience the expected booms. It finds that both countries experienced resource curse effects as a result of future expectations, including volatile economic growth and eroded governance. The article demonstrates that shared aspirations and expectations alone may make for material political and economic outcomes even when they become visibly divorced from reality. Thus, there is much more to resource curse effects than simply the product of the material extraction of natural endowments. At a time of extremely volatile prices for primary commodities, and the relatively easy availability of investment capital and credit to support speculative ventures that in turn incentivize resource hype, it is likely that a growing number of countries may suffer the malign effects of a resource curse without natural resource extraction. ; Full Text
This paper reviews the existing evidence base on the practice of people management in the context of post-state socialist countries of Asia. The focus is on Asian successor states of the Soviet Union and those under direct Soviet domination. In an undeniably diverse region, in all the countries under review there appears to be a disarticulation between liberal market reforms, economic progress, the ability to attract FDI and the development and persistence of a formal employment base. Extended informal networks of support often play an important role, inter alia, in informing recruitment, although clan based networks appear as quite impermeable to outsiders. Regulatory coverage is uneven but in many instances job protection is high. Drawing on the available research base, this paper consolidates and extends the existing state of knowledge on people management within the institutional contexts examined and draws out the implications for theorising and practice. The study highlights how reforms in one area may lead to counter-movements in others, shoring up existing modes of people management. Again, whilst clans and middle classes both have channels for political advocacy, there are fewer opportunities for workers and their representatives; this means that there is little impetus for legislation to promote better practice, workplace inclusivity and equity.
Sovereign wealth funds have an increasing presence in the global financial ecosystem, principally through their investments in equities, which, in turn, may influence HRM. This study examines the influence of the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund‐Global (NGPF‐G), on employment in its U.K. investee firms. We find that firms with NGPF‐G investment are significantly less likely to reduce their demand for labour, more specifically in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. When a drop in the demand for labour does occur, it is less extreme when compared to similar organisations without a NGPF‐G shareholding, and this is evident even in the case of relatively small NGPF‐G investments. These findings are in line with the fund's objective of promoting corporate sustainability and Norwegian values. We draw out the key implications of our findings for HR practice.
