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In the mid‐1970s, there was an upsurge of interest in the notion of worker participation at board level. Several influences contributed to this development, including initiatives from the EEC, experience of worker directors at BSC, political commitment from the then Labour Government, culminating in the establishment of a Committee of Inquiry. It was at this time an unknown researcher with research experience of participation in joint consultative committees — amongst other things — began negotiations with the Department of Employment for monies to pursue her research interests. The outcome was the “worker director project” based at the University of Nottingham. The aim of the project was to examine the role of worker directors in private sector companies. Few companies fitting that description could be found, but of the seven which co‐operated in the research, all were different in many respects. The worker director schemes which they had fostered too were different. This monograph presents brief case descriptions of four of these firms. An attempt is made to highlight the salient features of each which were perceived to be influential in shaping the scheme. Thus various contextual factors are discussed, so too are role and role‐related issues; the extent of training and preparation of the worker director; the amount of information disclosed to and by her/him. Finally, a list of criteria are suggested as guides for assessing and evaluating such schemes, not so much by their own lights, but as a reasonably detached, independent observer.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of day labor worker centers in improving wages and working conditions of migrant casual workers in the USA.

The paper reports the results of a survey of worker center executive directors and senior staff, with particular attention to the ways in which centers maintain wage rates, allocate jobs, and redress grievances.

Day labor worker centers are now an important presence in construction industry casual labor markets, performing HRM functions that benefit employers and workers.

The research was undertaken during a time when the US construction industry was enjoying an expansion. It is unclear what a macroeconomic downturn might mean for the effectiveness of worker centers to maintain labor standards.

Conditions of instability and the violation of basic labor standards that occur in casual labor markets in the USA exist in other countries as well. Day labor worker centers might be a model intervention that could apply in other contexts.

The paper presents results from the first national survey of day labor worker centers. It highlights the key activities of these emerging labor market institutions.

As in many other aspects of Soviet life, industrial relations procedures and practices are undergoing a peaceful revolution. There is a trend away from the bureaucratic and centralised system towards greater democracy in workplace relationships, much of this being predicated in a new structure for employment law. In this interview, Professor Baglai expands on these issues and many more in opening the black box of industrial relations in the USSR.

Ten years ago, Resende was a peaceful town near a well-known mountain resort in the State of Rio de Janeiro and housing the famous military academy through which many of the military elite of Brazil have passed. Near the border of the State of São Paulo and beside the main road linking the cities of Rio and São Paulo, Resende seemed doomed to a slow existence with no bright future ahead. This paper draws upon on-going research into the social impacts of new developments that took place in Resende, after the inauguration of two big vehicle assemblers – Volkswagen’s bus and truck plant in 1996 and the Peugeot/Citroen car assembly plant in 2001. In the case of VW, the plant was also presented as a major development in vehicle assembly. The unique feature of the plant’s production system rests on the relationship between the assembler (VW) and its component suppliers. At Resende, these were involved in a joint enterprise to establish a “modular consortium” of production. In this system, the component suppliers finance a part of the factory and organise the assembly of their components on site. As such, few of the production workers are employed by VW whose main role in the process is to co-ordinate production and market the vehicle.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the measures required to assess organizational communication for Japanese organizations, specifically focusing on Japanese care facilities.

The data collected from the two-wave panel research, using the question items generated from a literature survey and several interview and focus group interview research were statistically analyzed. For the first wave of the research, questionnaires were distributed to 850 workers in June 2014. In all, 356 completed questionnaires were returned directly to the researcher, a response rate of 41.9 percent. For the second wave of the research, the questionnaires were distributed to 719 workers in February 2015, and 386 completed questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 53.69 percent.

Some items were excluded as a result of the exploratory factor analysis using the first-wave data and the constructs of the questions of each dimension of communication were confirmed as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis using the second-wave data.

While significant research into communication audits has been conducted across a wide variety of organizations in the USA and Europe, very few studies have focused on the development of an appropriate communication audit instrument for Japan. The development of a Japanese communication audit questionnaire is critical. In addition, instruments specific to industries are also required. This is the first study that focused on developing a Japanese organizational communication audit.

Firms are accountable for upholding worker rights and well-being in their supply base. The authors unpack the evolution in lead firm thinking and practice about how to assure labor conditions at suppliers.

The authors conducted interviews with the social sustainability leaders at 22 global corporations (“lead firms”) and their sustainability consultants to understand how they think about, and enact efforts, to support labor in their supply base. The authors complement this with an analysis of stated practice in proprietary supplier codes of conduct for the manufacturing and extractive-related firms in the S&P 500 and FTSE 350.

The authors’ interviews suggest firms follow two distinct and cumulative approaches: a transactional-based approach leveraging collective buyer power to enforce supplier compliance and a relational-based approach focused on mutual capacity building between lead (buyer) firms and their suppliers. The authors also see the emergence, in a small subset of firms, of a bottom-up approach that recognizes supplier workers as rights-holders and empowers them to understand and claim their rights.

The authors identify systematic convergence in supplier codes of conduct. While the transactional and relational approaches are well documented in the supply chain social sustainability literature, the rights-holder approach is not. Its emergence presents an important complement to the other approaches and enables a broader recognition of human rights, and the duty of Western firms to assure those rights.

Although the Bullock Committee's proposals on industrial democracy have been quietly put on the shelf, greater employee participation in decision‐making is inevitable. Drawing on events following the decline of the Roman Empire — with the emergence of the Papacy — the authors suggest that middle‐managers could emerge as industrial Cardinals. To them would fall the task of reconciling conflicting demands from senior management and worker directors.

Workers' participation in management decision making has always been a controversial subject. One of the problems, central to this controversy is management's prerogatives. Business leaders are feeling increasing pressures for participation from workers and their organisations in areas of enterprise that were once exclusively reserved for management. They are afraid that legal and quasi legal schemes of participation will increase employees' and trade‐unions' influence and power and will erode managerial control. To what extent are these fears justified? How should the enterprise operating in a democratic framework be directed and controlled?

THREE REPORTS coming to hand during this month need close examination by all who wish to stay in business.