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In response to demands and opportunities of the labor market, contemporary employers and employees voluntarily are entering into highly customized agreements regarding nonstandard employment terms. We refer to such idiosyncratic deals as “i-deals,” acknowledging that these arrangements are intended to benefit all parties. Examples of i-deals include an employee with highly coveted skills who is compensated more generously than other employees doing comparable work, and an employee who is granted atypically flexible working hours to accommodate certain personal life demands. The nonstandard nature of i-deals is likely to prompt questions about the fairness of the arrangement among three principal stakeholders – employees who receive the i-deal, managers with whom the i-deal is negotiated, and the co-workers of these employees and managers. We analyze issues of fairness that arise in the relationships among all three pairings of these stakeholders through the lenses of four established forms of organizational justice – distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and informational justice. Our discussion sheds light on previously unexplored nuances of i-deals and identifies several neglected theoretical issues of organizational justice. In addition to highlighting these conceptual advances, we also discuss methods by which the fairness of i-deals can be promoted.

This paper analyzes the effects on housing prices of fire hazard disclosure in real estate transactions. In 1998, California passed the Natural Hazard Disclosure Law (AB 1195), which requires sellers to fill out a form disclosing to potential buyers whether their residence is in a statutory flood, wildfire, or seismic zone. This study looks specifically at whether homes in designated wildfire hazard zones in California saw any drop in value following this law. We found that location in a statutory fire zone is actually associated with a 3% positive price premium both before and after AB 1195, probably due to the unmeasured amenity values associated with location in the urban–rural interface. However, the combination of proximity to recent fire perimeters and post-AB 1195 disclosure does have a negative effect on selling price. After AB 1195, homes in statutory fire hazard zones that were within five kilometers of the perimeter of a major and recent fire sold on average for 5.1% (or $10,600) less than comparable homes that were in statutory fire zones but not near the perimeter of a recent fire, while no such differential exists prior to the law. This indicates that state-level fire-disclosure requirements prior to AB1195 (which were numerous, but vague, limited to fewer hazard zones, and poorly enforced) were inadequate. Therefore, while disclosure on its own does not appear to have influenced the real estate market in all statutory fire zones, it does negatively impact prices when in combination with proximity to a recent major fire.

Gender divisions are embedded in and essential to the structure of capitalist production. While most men and women in the United States both now work for wages, they rarely work together. Gender segregation has been identified as one of the major issues of the earnings gap between men and women. An explanation of the forces responsible for this has been difficult to achieve. Most theories fail to consider the contribution of demand‐side factors to gender segregation. Neo‐Marxist analysis of labour market segmentation and theories of the dual economy have provided new frameworks for investigating these structural or demand‐side features of industrial organisation. The pattern of blue‐collar segregation in US manufacturing industries is examined drawing on these theories. Employment data from the US census is used to identify how the levels of blue‐collar segregation in manufacturing industries are influenced by the industry's location within the core or peripheral sector of the US economy. Many of segregation's proposed remedies stress the role of supply‐side factors. These strategies focus attention almost exclusively on male and female workers and ignore the structure of the workplace. Strategies that ignore the dualistic nature of the US economy offer only partial solutions and may be counter‐productive. If forced to eliminate or reduce segmentation, employers may simply restructure their labour processes in a way that undermines rather than contributes to gender inequality. It is apparent that the pursuit of gender equality in the workplace is intrinsically related to and dependent on the broader efforts of workers to achieve greater control over production, both at the workplace and in the economy as a whole.

It is recognised in marketing that the study of buyer behaviour includes analysis of instrumental acts: that is, acts necessary in obtaining the goal object and the acts involved in consuming it. A technology that eases the difficulty level of instrumental acts such as visiting a purchase outlet to purchase a product is the Internet. Technically, the Internet minimises customer’s transaction costs such as time spent travelling to a store to purchase a product. Yet, in spite of its benefits, only one‐in‐four Internet users shop online. An empirical analysis of surveyed beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding Internet purchase of air tickets revealed that security concerns about the Internet make consumers avoid online purchase of air tickets. It is suggested that Internet marketers focus on modifying the attitudinal structure of consumers.

Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier 25), the consequences on employees of such a reduction can be assessed; and relevant attitudes and aspirations better known.

The UK's Equal Opportunities Commission's Research Bulletin No. 10 is a special issue on this topic. It originated from a workshop which the EOC organised on the theme ‘researching women's issues’. There was a growing concern at the time that gender research was raising a number of issues which conventional research methods were not able to handle particularly well. Two of the papers presented at the workshop ‐ Richard Brown's keynote address and Audrey Hunt's retrospective on the role of quantitative survey methods in gender research ‐ are reproduced here for a wider audience.

“I'm afraid I don't often have the opportunity, myself, of showing people around” explained the director of Multi‐Media Amenity Resources, “but most of my staff are taking industrial action today … oh, some minor dispute about my plan to convert branch libraries into games 'n disco bars.” In fact he hadn't been to the building for three months due to the pressure of committee, sub‐committee, advisory group, interdepartmental, forward planning, twinning, budget trimming, directorate, joint steering committee, management, community profile, section, heads of departments and ‘don't minute that’ decision making meetings. In addition, were day, weekend, short course, refresher, local, regional, national, schools, courses, seminars and conferences which he felt obliged to attend in order to supplement his collection of handy‐packed hotel beverages, and, incidentally, to keep up with all that was new and wonderful in the field of librarianship.

The aim of this practice briefing is to provide clarity on property valuations provided for secured lending. The principal basis of valuation is market value but there is confusion on when and where it is appropriate or inappropriate to provide a valuation with an assumption of a restricted marketing period, sometimes referred to as a “forced sale”. This practice briefing examines the nature of the problem and steps which a valuer can take to provide advice which is consistent with the valuation standards.

This practice briefing is an overview of the role of valuation standards when providing valuations for secured lending and specifically what to do when asked for a value with an assumed restricted marketing period.

This briefing is a review of valuation standards and practice.

The role of the practising valuer, when providing valuations for secured lending, is to provide a valuation to aid and underpin the lender in assessing the risk attached to the loan. This briefing considers the provision of valuations in practice.

This provides guidance on how to undertake valuations for secured lending.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the challenges in undertaking occupational pay comparisons and why this matters for evidence-based reward management, union bargaining strategies and perceptions of pay equity.

The paper draws on the extant literature on pay and undertakes detailed quantitative analysis of teachers pay in Scotland relative to teachers elsewhere in the UK, graduates and other professional occupations in the private and public sectors.

The key finding of this paper is that alternative ways of analysing pay comparability produce significantly different outcomes – occupational pay comparisons require the identification of an appropriate comparator and appropriate measures of pay and hours, yet this is not straightforward. Different approaches to comparability may lead to key stakeholders holding widely differing views about pay equity, with employment relations implications.

Quantitative analyses of pay using large-scale survey data are crucial to understanding relative occupational pay. However, quantitative analyses cannot provide in-depth and nuanced understanding of the nature of particular occupations. Moreover, the paper focuses at the occupational level and does not assess individual employee characteristics that may influence pay.

These findings should inform employers (especially HR managers), employees and unions on pay policy, pay settlements and bargaining strategies.

There is relatively little contemporary literature on the importance of, and challenges in undertaking, occupational pay comparisons.

This chapter provides an overview of the results from a cross-nationally comparative project analysing gender differences and inequalities at labour market entry. Women’s relative gains in educational attainment and the expansion of the service sector suggest that gender inequalities in occupational returns are diminishing or even reversing. In assessing gender differences at labour market entry, we look at a phase of the life course when women’s family roles are still of minor importance. Conceptually, we distinguish between horizontal segregation and inequalities in vertical outcomes. The project was based on 13 in-depth case studies contributed by a network of scholars analysing countries with different institutional, socio-economic and cultural settings. The findings demonstrate that occupational gender segregation is still relatively marked among recent cohorts, though it is slightly decreasing over time in several countries. In terms of vertical inequalities, the case studies consistently revealed that while women enter more prestigious jobs than men in most countries, there is a female disadvantage in economic returns among recent labour market entrants. In addition, we found mixed evidence on the variations of gender equality at labour market entry across countries with different institutional characteristics.