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Article
Publication date: 26 June 2023

James D. Grant and Danielle Mercer

The authors sought to examine how hegemonic masculinity and sexism functioned in a storied, historic corporation, a test of MAnne's (2017) claim that misogyny is a structural…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors sought to examine how hegemonic masculinity and sexism functioned in a storied, historic corporation, a test of MAnne's (2017) claim that misogyny is a structural phenomenon rather than being about anger and hatred of individual men.

Design/methodology/approach

This study was an archaeological excavation of discourse in a well-documented employment relationship. The researchers were informed by feminist poststructuralism and drew on critical discourse analysis of labour arbitration and media from the case of a woman, twice wrongfully dismissed.

Findings

The authors concluded that the employer was the site of hegemonic masculinity, which led to a train conductor being repeatedly targeted and demeaned in a bad faith and discriminatory manner for disrupting the conductor’s employer's patriarchal strictures. The authors found that misogyny shaped the conductors’s experience as a repeated pattern of abuse, a gendered feature of a patriarchal organisation, and a coercive matter of maintaining the conductor’s subordination. The authors also found that the male arbitrator in the conductor’s second dismissal arbitration became complicit in misogyny by penalising the conductor for acts of resistance, giving the employer what the employer wanted, to purge the conductor for violating the patriarchal norms.

Originality/value

The authors traced how a historic corporation demonstrated vulnerability to the resistance of a lone female worker, who faced discriminatory, disturbing and bad faith managerial behaviour in the creation of the conductor’s own meaning and resistant identity. The authors concluded that evidence of the regulation of employee relations, such as the decisions of arbitrators, can reveal the processes and outcomes of work under hegemonic masculinity, sexism and misogyny.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Expert briefing
Publication date: 12 December 2023

The decision followed weeks of protests over the terms of the newly revised contract. Cobre Panama, located in Colon province, is Central America’s largest open-pit copper mine…

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2024

Zhongwei Sun, Xuchuang Zhang and Xiaofang Wu

This study investigates the mediating role of wage and workforce adjustments, along with the moderating influence of collective bargaining system and employees’ localization, in…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the mediating role of wage and workforce adjustments, along with the moderating influence of collective bargaining system and employees’ localization, in elucidating the relationship between the COVID-19 shock and workplace employee relations (ER) tension.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data from 1,483 enterprises across 21 prefectural cities in China’s Guangdong Province are collected. The hypotheses are tested by logistic regression.

Findings

The study reveals a positive correlation between the COVID-19 shock and workplace ER tension across crisis-hit enterprises, irrespective of their size or industrial sector. Wage reduction and mass layoffs emerge as significant mediators, while the collective bargaining system (CBS) and employees’ localization act as moderators.

Research limitations/implications

The measurement of ER is limited in a single-item scale. Representation of China is also limited since the study exclusively focuses on Guangdong province. The study offers some contributions that firm-level data reveal the pathway through which COVID-19 creates ER tension.

Practical implications

On the one hand, the authors recommend the establishment of an effective communication system between employers and employees. On the other hand, managers should consider the role of informal institutions. Furthermore, the authors suggest implementing tailored strategies at the enterprise level.

Social implications

Intense external shocks result in widespread layoffs and increased wage reductions within workplaces, and under such circumstances, formal or informal institutions may be insufficient to alleviate ER tension. In this case, the state authorities – including governments and other public agencies or bodies – are necessary to intervene in to organize tripartite dialogue.

Originality/value

While numerous emerging studies on COVID-19 explore how different countries manage industrial relations tension at the national level, few focus on ER at workplace level, particularly in developing countries. Understanding how workplace ER evolve during external shocks and identifying institutional measures to mitigate their negative impact is crucial for future crisis management.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 August 2023

Hanna Maria Malik

This chapter explores the empowering potential of research conducted with an activist orientation. It focuses on the story of four migrant workers employed in a Norwegian…

Abstract

This chapter explores the empowering potential of research conducted with an activist orientation. It focuses on the story of four migrant workers employed in a Norwegian fish-processing plant, who, supported by the local trade union and along with 67 colleagues, resisted against exploitative working, employment, and living conditions. Meant as a study of the emergence and dynamics of criminological activism, this chapter reflects the capacities in which researchers tend to act to challenge the normalisation of state-corporate harms and to empower those victimised by these harms, as well as on the pitfalls of these approaches. In so doing, this chapter points to the parallels between state-corporate criminology, labour perspective on human trafficking, social harm, and zemiology. Ultimately, it calls for heightened reflexivity and critical intellectual distance from activist researchers.

Details

The Emerald International Handbook of Activist Criminology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-199-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 December 2022

Mathew Johnson, Eva Herman and Ceri Hughes

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter – a top-down soft regulation initiative that has been framed as a…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter – a top-down soft regulation initiative that has been framed as a “movement” to promote good employment across the local area.

Design/methodology/approach

The research draws on 24 semi-structured interviews with policy officers, trade unions, employers and civil society actors and various professional and employer bodies who have been involved in the charter since its inception. The interview data are complemented by documentary analysis.

Findings

The findings underline the importance of institutional factors such as political access points and the mobilising structures of the state in creating a space for progressive employment policies such as charters to emerge. We also find that the framing of the charter as a mechanism to achieve both social justice and improved productivity allows diverse actors to engage, but at the same time this results in a degree of ambiguity over the normative and substantive reference points for “good employment”.

Originality/value

The article contributes to our understanding of the changing nature of top-down political initiatives that seek to change business practices by engaging a wide range of stakeholders as Allies not adversaries. We argue that while charters are a potentially useful demand side intervention, in the absence of significant workplace or grassroots engagement and without coordinated mechanisms of monitoring and enforcement, their effects on low wage labour markets will be limited.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 45 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 July 2023

Manas Chatterji

The objective of this chapter is to discuss how different techniques in Regional Science and Peace Science and the emerging techniques in Management Science can be used in…

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to discuss how different techniques in Regional Science and Peace Science and the emerging techniques in Management Science can be used in analysing Disaster Management and Global pandemic with special reference to developing countries. It is necessary for me to first discuss the subjects of Disaster Management, Regional Science, Peace Science and Management Science. The objective of this chapter is to emphasise that the studies of Disaster Management should be more integrated with socioeconomic and geographical factors. The greatest disaster facing the world is the possibility of war, particularly nuclear war, and the preparation of the means of destruction through military spending.

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Vijay P. Singh

This study aims to analyse the present situation of gender inequality in the workplace in India, examine the legal provisions that address gender inequality in India and evaluate…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to analyse the present situation of gender inequality in the workplace in India, examine the legal provisions that address gender inequality in India and evaluate and assess the recommendations made to eliminate gender imbalance at workplaces in India.

Design/methodology/approach

This study will adopt an exploratory research design to help identify and describe the most pressing problems and developments in the field. For this purpose, a secondary data collection approach is adopted. This study will acquire data through secondary means. This study will gather secondary data through the course of existing literature, judicial decisions and other authentic and published sources.

Findings

Legislative and judicial efforts alone are not enough to achieve gender equality. The mindset of people, in general, has to change through awareness. Unless a law is supported by public opinion, it cannot achieve its goal.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to gender inequality in the workplace only. In addition, the judicial perspective on gender disparity in India is examined in this paper. As a result, the findings cannot be applied to other situations.

Originality/value

This study deals with gender inequality in the workplace from legal and judicial perspectives and discusses that social change can be brought only by enacting laws but by public awareness.

Details

International Journal of Law and Management, vol. 65 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-243X

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 27 November 2023

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Appearance in the Workplace
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-174-7

Article
Publication date: 29 May 2023

Martha Wilcoxson and Jana Craft

This paper aims to explore the common ethical decision-making challenges faced by financial advisers and how they meet these challenges. The purpose is to identify successful…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the common ethical decision-making challenges faced by financial advisers and how they meet these challenges. The purpose is to identify successful decision-making tools used by investment advisers in doing business ethically. Additionally, the authors uncover common challenges and offer decision-making tools to provide support for supplemental ethics training in the future.

Design/methodology/approach

Questions were analyzed through a qualitative approach using individual interviews to examine a range of experiences and attitudes of active financial advisers. The sample was represented by 11 practicing financial advisers affiliated with US independent broker-dealers: six women and five men, each with 10 or more years of experience, ranging in age from 35 to 75. Grounded in four ethical decision-making models, this research examines individual ethical decision-making using individual (internal, personal) and organizational (external, situational) factors.

Findings

The method used uncovered struggles and revealed strategies used in making ethical decisions. Two research questions were examined: what are the common ethical decision-making challenges faced by financial advisers in the US financial industry? How do financial advisers handle ethical decision-making challenges? Four themes emerged that impacted ethical decision-making: needs of the individual, needs of others, needs of the firm and needs of the marketplace. Financial advisers identified moral obligation, self-control and consulting with others as major considerations when they contemplate difficult decisions.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation of this review is its small sample size. A more robust sample size from investment advisers with a broader range of experiences could have widened the findings from the study.

Practical implications

Investment advisers can use the findings of this study as a tool for improving their own ethical decision-making or designing training for their employees to be better decision-makers.

Originality/value

The study explores the decision-making experiences of investment advisers to reveal multifaceted, often private struggles that qualitative methods can uncover. The study provides support for the development of additional training in ethical decision-making specific to investment advisers.

Details

Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4179

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 15 August 2023

Saurabh Agarwal

The students should go through the concepts of motivation, leadership, organisational communication, organisational culture, organisational conflict, power and politics and…

Abstract

Research methodology

The students should go through the concepts of motivation, leadership, organisational communication, organisational culture, organisational conflict, power and politics and organisational change and development from their course on organisational behaviour.

In Business Communication, the students could review effective communication skills, the process of communication and barriers to communication to prescribe suitable recommendations for the organisation.

In Financial Accounting, the reader should revise the income statement and balance sheet. They can undertake financial analysis on the data presented in the case to analyse the performance of the organisation. The participants may be asked to identify future possible financial risks that may arise.

Case overview/synopsis

The Dattopant Thengadi National Board for Workers Education and Development (DTNBWED) was an autonomous body under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India. It had been responsible for creating a disciplined and skill-oriented workforce for the organised, unorganised and rural sectors in India. In the past, DTNBWED undertook training programmes to educate and improve the quality of life of workers. However, the objectives were far from being fulfilled because of challenges such as an acute shortage of education officers, a slow recruitment process, communication issues between the ministry and the DTNBWED and a large part of the budget being spent on salaries. The main challenges faced by DTNBWED were the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission and the higher contribution of the Government under a new pension scheme. The DTNBWED faced audit issues, including the absence of an inventory register, non-compliance with accounting rules and statutory norms and inadequate internal audit. The DTNBWED could not shift its headquarters from Nagpur to Delhi because of office politics and differences between the staff and the ministry. The organisation needed a complete reorganisation using principles of change management and agile management. It was recommended that departmental promotion committees review promotions immediately; recruitment of education officers should be done along with post-revival with the Ministry of Finance; rental of offices should be from Government departments only; and the administrative manual and recruitment rules should be revised. These measures would help to overcome the challenges faced by DTNBWED, such as low expenditure on training, poor communication between the ministry and headquarters, vacant top-level posts and low motivation levels among existing officers.

Complexity academic level

The case is appropriate for MBA students, executive MBAs, and those working in government organisations.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/TCJ-04-2021-0056/

Details

The CASE Journal, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 1544-9106

Keywords

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