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Article
Publication date: 28 June 2011

Martin Upchurch and Darko Marinković

This paper aims to examine the phenomenom of wild capitalism under post Communist transformation. Many commentators on post Communist transformation focus their attention on…

1440

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the phenomenom of wild capitalism under post Communist transformation. Many commentators on post Communist transformation focus their attention on dysfunctional corporate governance and the deleterious consequences of liberalisation on business ethics. Poor business ethics and bad corporate governance may be a consequence of labour exploitation for comparative advantage, and the abandonment of party authority. This allowed rapacious rent‐seeking by a minority well placed to benefit from the newly de‐regulated regime. A by‐product is a burgeoning informal economy encouraged by insider dealing of privatised state assets. State regulation, where it exists, is often ignored. Employment relations are fragmented, with state‐owned enterprises retaining some form of collective regulation, while newly privatised enterprises seek to marginalise union activity.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses why Serbia has diverged from the Slovenian case in the former Yugoslavia and determines norms of behaviour as a product of both structural and agency dynamics. Evaluates the Privatisation Agency's programme and reviews documentary evidence on business transparency. Records evidence of labour disputes from trade unions, press reports, semi‐structured interviews with trade union leaders and activists. The researchers also held a Round Table of trade unionists, journalists and employers in Belgrade in September 2008, funded by the British Academy.

Findings

The paper concludes that wild capitalism is an integral, rather than deviant mode of behaviour in Serbia.

Originality/value

The findings have relevance for other post Communist states, which may be subject to a greater or lesser degree to political clientelism and fragmentation of employment relations.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 33 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2005

Mike Richardson, Stephanie Tailby, Andrew Danford, Paul Stewart and Martin Upchurch

This paper explores employee experiences concerning job security/insecurity, workload, job satisfaction and employee involvement in the aftermath of Best Value reviews in a local…

2224

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores employee experiences concerning job security/insecurity, workload, job satisfaction and employee involvement in the aftermath of Best Value reviews in a local authority.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques employees' experiences of Best Value reviews in a local authority are compared and contrasted with council staff employed elsewhere in the authority to establish the extent to which workplace partnership principles have taken hold under a Best Value regime.

Findings

Little evidence of positive outcomes was found from partnership at work under a Best Value regime. The constraints imposed by central government, under which managers in the public sector operate, contributed significantly to partnership at work remaining little more than a hollow shell.

Originality/value

This paper provides a recent in‐depth case study of the experience of workplace partnership, which was developed not discrete from but as part of the Best Value modernisation programme in a local authority.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 34 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 October 2014

Martin Upchurch, Phoebe Moore and Aylin Kunter

This chapter reviews the ongoing processes of marketisation in secondary school teaching and its further embedment through commodification of teachers’ performance. We track…

Abstract

This chapter reviews the ongoing processes of marketisation in secondary school teaching and its further embedment through commodification of teachers’ performance. We track developments through documentary evidence from Government statements and other agency reports and unstructured interviews with teachers’ union representatives in the South West of England. Following Carter and Stevenson (2012) we begin by introducing the labour process debate concerning teachers’ productive labour to provide the backdrop for the argument that teachers’ work is increasingly commodified and judged along neoliberalised requirements. Commodification has taken place through measurement of abstract standards constructed by associating individual teachers with their pupils’ achievements, as well as subjective assessment of teacher behaviour judged against newly introduced ‘Teacher Standards’. We argue that this attempted quantification of teacher output is constructed, in Marxist terms, to accommodate to the ‘socially necessary labour time’ and to indirectly maximise work ‘output’ for individual teachers through a process of standardisation of processes involved in task completion. We attempt to define new ways of measuring teachers’ work through the lens of abstract labour and link such processes to workplace alienation. In such fashion, teachers are subject to work intensification, increased monitoring and surveillance, further standardisation of work and weakening of creative autonomy leading to intensified alienation from the professional nature of the job.

Details

Research in Political Economy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-007-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2011

Zsolt Bedo, Mehmet Demirbag and Geoffrey Wood

This article seeks to explore some of the principal issues and debates on the relationship between institutions, firm level governance and employment relations outcomes in Eastern…

1259

Abstract

Purpose

This article seeks to explore some of the principal issues and debates on the relationship between institutions, firm level governance and employment relations outcomes in Eastern and Central Europe.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper particularly focuses on the countries that are encompassed by the papers covering the special issue.

Findings

Introducing new and meaningful forms of labour regulation becomes very much more difficult in times of economic crisis. This means that the regulation of employment relations is likely to be diminished, or, as is probably more likely in the case of the bulk of countries in the region, a situation of “muddling on” is likely to persist. Firm level employment relations practices are likely to be persistently diverse, both within and between countries. Key areas of division are in terms of country clusters, which range from proto‐social democratic through to “wild capitalist”, distinguished by variations in terms of firm size, and between the formal and informal economies.

Practical implications

This study highlights the extent to which institutional variations and change may mould the choices made at firm level.

Originality/value

There is a tendency to conflate the region into a loose transitional category. This paper highlights the divergent paths followed by the countries in the region, and the extent to which this has been associated by diversity in employment relations both within and between countries.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 33 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 29 October 2014

Abstract

Details

Research in Political Economy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-007-0

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 January 2021

Heimo Losbichler and Othmar M. Lehner

Looking at the limits of artificial intelligence (AI) and controlling based on complexity and system-theoretical deliberations, the authors aimed to derive a future outlook of the…

16267

Abstract

Purpose

Looking at the limits of artificial intelligence (AI) and controlling based on complexity and system-theoretical deliberations, the authors aimed to derive a future outlook of the possible applications and provide insights into a future complementary of human–machine information processing. Derived from these examples, the authors propose a research agenda in five areas to further the field.

Design/methodology/approach

This article is conceptual in its nature, yet a theoretically informed semi-systematic literature review from various disciplines together with empirically validated future research questions provides the background of the overall narration.

Findings

AI is found to be severely limited in its application to controlling and is discussed from the perspectives of complexity and cybernetics. A total of three such limits, namely the Bremermann limit, the problems with a partial detectability and controllability of complex systems and the inherent biases in the complementarity of human and machine information processing, are presented as salient and representative examples. The authors then go on and carefully illustrate how a human–machine collaboration could look like depending on the specifics of the task and the environment. With this, the authors propose different angles on future research that could revolutionise the application of AI in accounting leadership.

Research limitations/implications

Future research on the value promises of AI in controlling needs to take into account physical and computational effects and may embrace a complexity lens.

Practical implications

AI may have severe limits in its application for accounting and controlling because of the vast amount of information in complex systems.

Originality/value

The research agenda consists of five areas that are derived from the previous discussion. These areas are as follows: organisational transformation, human–machine collaboration, regulation, technological innovation and ethical considerations. For each of these areas, the research questions, potential theoretical underpinnings as well as methodological considerations are provided.

Details

Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 22 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-5426

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 May 2023

Weimo Li, Yaobin Lu, Peng Hu and Sumeet Gupta

Algorithms are widely used to manage various activities in the gig economy. Online car-hailing platforms, such as Uber and Lyft, are exemplary embodiments of such algorithmic…

Abstract

Purpose

Algorithms are widely used to manage various activities in the gig economy. Online car-hailing platforms, such as Uber and Lyft, are exemplary embodiments of such algorithmic management, where drivers are managed by algorithms for task allocation, work monitoring and performance evaluation. Despite employing substantially, the platforms face the challenge of maintaining and fostering drivers' work engagement. Thus, this study aims to examine how the algorithmic management of online car-hailing platforms affects drivers' work engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the transactional theory of stress, the authors examined the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and revealed the mediation effects of challenge-hindrance appraisals. Based on survey data collected from 364 drivers, the authors' hypotheses were examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The authors also applied path comparison analyses to further compare the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on the two types of appraisals.

Findings

This study finds that online car-hailing drivers' challenge-hindrance appraisals mediate the relationship between algorithmic management characteristics and work engagement. Algorithmic monitoring positively affects both challenge and hindrance appraisals in online car-hailing drivers. However, algorithmic fairness promotes challenge appraisal and reduces hindrance appraisal. Consequently, challenge and hindrance appraisals lead to higher and lower work engagement, respectively. Further, the additional path comparison analysis showed that the hindering effect of algorithmic monitoring exceeds its challenging effect, and the challenge-promoting effect of algorithmic fairness is greater than the algorithm's hindrance-reducing effect.

Originality/value

This paper reveals the underlying mechanisms concerning how algorithmic monitoring and fairness affect online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and fills the gap in the research on algorithmic management in the context of online car-hailing platforms. The authors' findings also provide practical guidance for online car-hailing platforms on how to improve the platforms' algorithmic management systems.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 March 2015

György Pataki, Richárd Szántó and Réka Matolay

Online CSR communication of top Hungarian companies has been analysed, aiming at the exploration of the internal and external consistency of corporate communication practices.

Abstract

Purpose

Online CSR communication of top Hungarian companies has been analysed, aiming at the exploration of the internal and external consistency of corporate communication practices.

Methodology/approach

Critical discourse analysis was implemented in the research of selected corporate web pages and social media presence of the companies in the sample. Then a comparison of online disclosure and the unethical/illegal activities of selected industries – telecommunication, construction and retail – was made.

Findings

No positive correlation between the culpability and the intensity of online CSR communication was detected. Therefore, it is not confirmed that disclosure of socially responsible activities and principles on the web is a mere corporate lip service. However, in certain highly controversial industries companies intensively communicate about their CSR actions on the one hand, and commit different forms of misconduct on the other.

Research limitations/implications

Our methodology certainly has limitations since we registered only a few forms of unethical behaviour. Additionally, our focus was on large Hungarian companies, therefore the opportunity for generalization is limited.

Practical implications

Our findings show remarkable dissonances in CSR communication and point to a rhetoric-reality gap that needs more attention from practitioners as well.

Originality/value

Applications of critical discourse analysis of online CSR communication is relatively rare, only few studies have been conducted so far to explore potential dissonances and contradictions within online communication and between communication and real activities.

Details

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-582-2

Abstract

Details

The Overtourism Debate
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-487-8

Book part
Publication date: 10 June 2015

Alexandra E. MacDougall, Zhanna Bagdasarov, James F. Johnson and Michael D. Mumford

Business ethics provide a potent source of competitive advantage, placing increasing pressure on organizations to create and maintain an ethical workforce. Nonetheless, ethical…

Abstract

Business ethics provide a potent source of competitive advantage, placing increasing pressure on organizations to create and maintain an ethical workforce. Nonetheless, ethical breaches continue to permeate corporate life, suggesting that there is something missing from how we conceptualize and institutionalize organizational ethics. The current effort seeks to fill this void in two ways. First, we introduce an extended ethical framework premised on sensemaking in organizations. Within this framework, we suggest that multiple individual, organizational, and societal factors may differentially influence the ethical sensemaking process. Second, we contend that human resource management plays a central role in sustaining workplace ethics and explore the strategies through which human resource personnel can work to foster an ethical culture and spearhead ethics initiatives. Future research directions applicable to scholars in both the ethics and human resources domains are provided.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-016-6

Keywords

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