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The role of labor unions in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains both ambiguous and crucial for union members and business leaders. Given the complex relationship between labor unions and corporations, this study aims to address whether labor unions keep corporations honest (by monitoring CSR activities) or potentially render CSR initiatives less necessary.

Using data from the MSCI Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Database for firms in the Russell 1000 Index, this study examines the link between labor unions and CSR in U.S. companies over a six year period. Generalized least squares models were used to test the hypotheses for 3,937 firm-year observations.

The findings show that unionized companies generally pay less attention to CSR compared to nonunionized ones. The presence of labor unions and positive union-management relations both show a significant negative impact on CSR ratings, where positive union-management relations negatively affect CSR ratings more than just the presence of labor unions. Further, when considering the environmental, social and governance aspects of CSR separately, the results are more complex, suggesting that the relationship between labor unions and CSR varies depending on specific ESG dimensions.

CSR, a well-researched area, rarely addresses the companies' relationships with labor unions. Studies in South Korea and the UK have touched on the impact of labor unions on CSR, but in the USA it remains unexplored. This study extends this line of work by examining U.S. companies.

This study examines how the presence of labor unions affects a firm’s pay disparity between executives and employees and its financial statement comparability.

It uses firm-level labor union data in Korea and applies regression analyses to a sample of 1,776 firm-year observations from 2004 to 2008.

The authors find that unionized firms have a smaller pay disparity between executives and employees than non-unionized firms, suggesting that labor unions place pressure on the pay structure. Unionization also lowers financial statement comparability, which helps managers of unionized firms maintain information asymmetry. Further, this negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is stronger in non-chaebol firms, implying that they are more motivated than chaebol firms to reduce their financial statement comparability in response to the presence of labor unions. In addition, the negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is pronounced in profit-making firms, firms with less analyst following, firms with fewer foreign investors and firms in more competitive product markets.

The finding that firms adjust comparability in response to labor unions interests regulators and policymakers, who emphasize the role of comparability in providing usefulness to information users.

The findings add to the existing literature on the effect of labor unions on firms' pay structures and accounting choices.

This study investigated the gender wage gap in Nigeria by analysing two waves of household surveys (in 2003–2004 and 2018–2019) in order to understand the dynamics or polarisation of the labour market in Nigeria in terms of the gender wage gap over time.

The study applied an extension of Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition that relies on the re-centred influence function (RIF) regressions to analyse the gender wage gap at all points along the wage distribution.

The results unambiguously show that there is a significant gender wage gap in Nigeria at all points along the wage distribution, such that for the two surveys used and after nearly two decades, men still earn more than women. That is, the log wage difference between males and females is statistically significant at all points between the 10th and the 90th quantiles. In 2003–2004 period, the authors found that most of the wage difference was significantly accounted for by the wage structure effect, whilst the composition effect was negative and only significant at the bottom of the wage distribution. Since the 2018–2019 period, the authors found that there has been a visible change such that most of the gender wage gap is now accounted for by the composition effect at all points along the wage distribution. Another interesting finding is that there has been a general decline in the gender wage gap along the entire wage distribution, such that inequality was higher in 2003–2004 than in 2018–2019. This decline is bigger at the top than at the bottom of the wage distribution. The authors also found that, contrary to some of the studies on the wage gap, the raw gaps for the two surveys appear to show inverted U-shape, but the gap has fallen quickly since the 2018–2019 period. Thus, the authors found strong evidence of a “sticky floor” compared to a “glass ceiling” effect in both periods, and this becomes more pronounced over time. In terms of the contributions of individual covariates on gender pay gap in Nigeria, the authors found that urban residence, unionisation, education and occupation variables exhibit major influence. However, the effects of covariates on the composition and wage structure components of the wage gap have changed over time.

The major policy implication of these findings is that to address the gender wage gap in Nigeria, policy should focus more on how labour is rewarded and improving human capital for women.

This study is a novel paper in Nigeria that has investigated the gender wage gap in Nigeria by extending the focus of literature in three ways. First, the authors applied an extension of Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition that relies on the RIF regressions to analyse the gender wage gap at all points along the wage distribution. Second, the authors used sample selection bias to account for the non-randomness of participation in wage employment. And third, the authors applied similar analysis to two waves of household surveys (in 2003/2004 and 2018/2019) in order to understand the dynamics or polarisation of the labour market in Nigeria in terms of the gender wage gap over time.

This paper aims to examine the current quality of work-life (QWL) situation and the effectiveness of labor laws for promoting QWL in the context of Nepalese workplaces.

It uses a descriptive-interpretative-qualitative approach to analyze the responses. Information is gathered through discussions with 85 higher- and middle-level managers of large and medium-sized organizations.

The majority of Nepalese organizations accept safe and healthy working conditions, social relevance of work-life, social integration in the work organization, and work and total life space as the key aspects of QWL. They have become even more critical as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they face challenges in providing employees with opportunities for continued growth and security, immediate opportunity to use and develop human capacities, adequate and fair compensation and constitutionalism in the work organization. QWL-related provisions in Labour Act, 2017, play a vital role in promoting the QWL situation. The QWL programs offer many benefits to employees’ private and working lives. The lack of such programs would undoubtedly have negative consequences for Nepalese companies. Compliance with labor laws will promote a better QWL situation at Nepalese workplaces.

Only managerial perspectives are considered for examining the current situation of QWL and the effectiveness of QWL-related provisions of the Labour Act, 2017. It excludes the views of union leaders.

This paper indicates that labor laws’ QWL-related provisions are effective. It also provides several policy measures for promoting a better QWL in Nepalese workplaces.

This study presents QWL-related legal provisions and the actual situation at the workplaces of Nepal. It also presents the key aspects of QWL in the context of Nepal.

With the increasing global popularity of the gig economy encompassing freelancers, online platform workers, self-employed, on-call workers and other temporary contractual workers, this study aims to review research focusing on the gig economy to explore the nuances of working in various alternative work arrangements. We aim to enhance the understanding of existing literature and highlight underexplored areas for future research.

A systematic literature review of 258 studies based on gig economy and gig work was conducted. It follows systematic search criteria and SPAR-4-SLR protocols. The analysis uses different gig worker profiles given by Watson et al. (2021) to categorize studies, followed by thematic analysis to identify patterns in the literature.

Our analysis of studies on gig economy shows that the majority of existing literature is based on gig service providers. Within this literature subset, major areas of study are work conditions, financial conditions, emergence and role of collectives, the impact of algorithmic management and the impact of rise of the gig economy on entrepreneurship. There is little research focusing on gig goods providers, gig data providers, agency gig workers and traditional gig worker profiles. More focus is also needed on emerging markets and markets transitioning to the gig economy.

Differing from reviews that have attempted to define gig work and workers, we focus on literature on the lived experiences of gig workers. By reviewing studies on different gig worker profiles, we are able to highlight future research directions for pointed sample sets and comparative underexplored areas.

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of trust in management and the moderating role of employee-management congruence in high-performance work system (HPWS) perceptions on the relationship between HPWS and firm performance.

Survey data on HPWS practices and employee–manager perceptions from a large sample of South Korean firms were integrated with objective financial performance data. Path analysis using STATA 18.0 with robust standard errors was used to test the hypothesised moderated mediation model.

Trust in management partially mediated the relationship between HPWS and firm performance. While employee–management congruence in HPWS perceptions did not moderate the direct effect of HPWS on firm performance, it significantly moderated the indirect effect through trust in management. The positive influence of HPWS on performance via trust was stronger when employee–management congruence was high.

This study extends the social exchange perspective on the HPWS–performance relationship by incorporating trust in management as a critical mediator and employee–management congruence in HPWS perceptions as a moderator. The findings highlight the importance of fostering shared understandings of human resource practices between employees and managers to optimise the trust-building and performance-enhancing effects of HPWS.

Organizations remain a vital sociological topic, but organizational sociology, as a subfield, has evolved significantly since its inception. In this paper, I argue that organization sociology is becoming increasingly disconnected from organizational theory, as currently conceived. The focus of sociological research on organizations has become more empirically grounded in the study of social problems and how organizations contribute to them. Sociologists continue to see organizations as important actors in society that play a role in shaping social order and as contexts in which social processes play out. I propose two main sociological approaches for organizational research, which I describe as “organizations within society” and “society within organizations.” The first approach examines the role of organizations as building blocks of social structure and as social actors in their own right. The second approach treats organizations as platforms and locations of social interactions and the building of community. These approaches are somewhat disconnected from the sort of grand theorizing that characterizes much of organizational theory. I argue that the problem-oriented sociology of these two approaches offers a vital way for organizational scholars to expand and theoretically revitalize the field.

In the fashion of Martin (2012), we develop an innovative application to a standard, well-grounded methodology to investigate resilience in two critical dimensions: recovery and resistance. Our novel approach allows us to investigate the resilience performance to the 2008 financial crisis within countries of this macro-region according to their shock isolation and absorptive capacities.

By individually estimating six open economy DSGE models within the Central Europe and Baltic macro-region, we identify the business-cycle-volatility drivers for each country. Then, we use the outcome of our six estimates to conduct a principal component analysis to determine structural common characteristics required to explain economic resilience in the CEB macro-region.

In terms of resilience, Central European economies exhibit quite similar paths in terms of recovery, meaning they have similar economic structures. By contrast, Baltic countries behave differently, being outliers in opposite extreme positions. The contrary occurs for resistance: Baltic countries share a similar ranking, whereas Central European economies exhibit substantial differences.

It is important to acknowledge that a limitation of the analysis is that we explicitly consider each country as a stand-alone open economy which are subject to stochastic disturbances. Precisely, we do not model trade or other interactions across countries within the CEB region and with the rest of the world. Consequently, spillover effects in the aftermath of the shock are not accounted for.

We estimate the relative vulnerability or sensitivity of economies within the macro-region to disturbances and disruptions (resistance) and the speed and extent of recovery from such a disruption or recession (recovery). First, we built two different kinds of measures of resilience by aggregating the estimated parameters through non-centered and centered principal component analysis. Then, we use our model to investigate the relation between financial shock and the economic resilience across the region. The approach can be applied to several case studies, parsimoniously.

Graduate students employed in graduate teaching and research assistantship positions have a unique experience of the institution because of their status as student-employees. Graduate assistants (GAs) face specific challenges around their well-being as they navigate various relationships and environments throughout their educational trajectory. The purpose of this study is to examine the specific workplace challenges GAs experience and their overall effect on GA wellbeing.

This research study examines graduate assistant responses from 12 US research universities to the Faculty Survey of student Engagement for Graduate student Instructors survey. This study’s analysis examined the open-ended responses (n = 493) at the end of the survey that asked participants for additional comments regarding their departmental and/or institutional experiences. Three waves of coding were implemented by the authors to identify common themes and areas of concern on GA working conditions.

The findings led to the creation of a concept map on GA working conditions that include three main components: contextual factors, stress and well-being and competing tensions. Within each component are subthemes related to social identity, funding, campus climate, time and priority concerns and assistantship structure and support. The map demonstrates the enmeshed connection across areas.

Findings suggest institutional investments through programming, system-level changes and interpersonal support to improve GA working conditions and their well-being.

Research on GA experiences with working conditions and well-being in a US context is limited. This study is valuable because many graduate students who occupy graduate assistantships are asking for increased pay and benefits at their institution. Graduate assistantship labor organizing is occurring alongside institutions’ focus on improving health outcomes for graduate students.

The study draws on emerging research on declining employee mental health, particularly employees with low educational attainment, in human resource management (HRM) and health and tests whether labor market institutions are empirically associated with better mental health among workers from different educational backgrounds.

This study draws on a large national sample of part- and full-time workers and models a conditional relationship between labor market institutions and employee self-rated mental health using ordinary least squares (OLS) models with fixed effects.

The findings indicate membership in a labor market institution such as a union is positively associated with improved employee mental health, but the relationship is moderated by educational attainment. Union membership is associated with better mental health among employees with low educational attainment and appears to bring these workers up to a level of mental health that is comparable to more highly educated workers, thereby reducing mental health inequality. However, union membership has no effect on the mental health of more highly educated employees.

Despite the recognition that declining worker mental health presents challenges for workers, organizations and society, systematic empirical research on institutional mechanisms that may affect mental health is limited. This study draws on data of part- and full-time workers to model the relationship with a sample large enough to specify conditional models to account for heterogeneous relationships conditional on workers' educational attainment. The findings have important implications for our understanding of employee mental health, employment relations and institutional mechanisms to help workers and improve organizational performance.