Search results for " industrial relations."
showing 10 items of 74 documents
Paradoxes of Mentoring: An Ethnographic Study of a Mentoring Programme for Highly-educated Women with Migrant Backgrounds
2019
This article explores paradoxes that emerge in the mentoring of highly-educated, female, foreign-born job-seekers in Finland. Theoretically, the study is linked to the growing body of research scrutinising the integration or discrimination of migrants in working life. It analyses cultural practices and ideas that are visible and affect the mentoring interaction. On a more practical level, the paper determines how the mentors and mentees experience the mentoring, and how intercultural mentoring could be improved in order to promote mentees’ employment. The article is based on ethnography and 11 semi-structured interviews. Two major paradoxes and their links to cultural meanings were identifi…
Precarious workers' choices about unemployment insurance membership after the Ghent system reform : The Finnish experience
2019
The literature on the Ghent system has focused on the link between voluntary unemployment insurance and union membership in terms of industrial relations. Less attention has been paid to unemployment benefits and employees' decision-making concerning unemployment insurance, even though the core function of the Ghent system is to provide unemployment insurance. This paper examines both of the options that precarious workers (i.e., part-timers, temporary employees, and low-skilled service employees) choose regarding unemployment insurance membership and the change in union density after the Ghent system reform in Finland. First, the results show that the growth of the independent unemployment…
Migration Experience of the Baltic Countries in the Context of Economic Crisis
2016
The Baltic countries, which experienced intensive outflow of labor during the first 5 years after joining the EU, also provide an interesting case for a study of the migration response to economic shocks. The behavior of Baltic migrants was different from that of their counterparts from other NMS. During the economic crisis of 2009–2010 and its aftermath, mobile citizens of other countries which joined EU in 2004 responded primarily to the worsening economic situation in old member state host countries: emigration slowed down, while return migration intensified.
Establishment size and task-specific wages: Evidence from historical contract data
2014
This study examines whether task-specific jobs are rewarded differently across establishments of different sizes and whether these rewards vary across distinct technologies. We found that the aggregate premium estimates on the impact of size on wages conceal significant differences between tasks and technologies and that these differences reflect unobserved individual heterogeneity. The role of self-selection of more productive workers into larger establishments is particularly substantial in the case of abstract tasks. peerReviewed
Work–Family Practices and Complexity of Their Usage: A Discourse Analysis Towards Socially Responsible Human Resource Management
2020
AbstractThe question of work–family practices commonly arises in both theory and daily practice as a matter of responsibility in today’s organisations. More information is needed about them for socially responsible human resource management (SR-HRM). In this article our interest is in how work–family practices, serve as an important element of SR-HRM, constructed as (un)helpful for employees’ work–family integration, are realised in organisational life. We investigate the discursive ways in which members of two different organisations working at different organisational levels construct the issue in the Finnish context. Three discourses were interpreted: (1) a discourse of compliance with e…
AirBaltic Case Based Analysis of Potential for Improving Employee Engagement Levels in Latvia through Gamification
2016
Abstract In 2014, airBaltic Corporation introduced a gamified electronic platform called Forecaster with a purpose to increase its employee engagement. The article considers the approach used by the organisation, analyses results, advantages and drawbacks of the organisation, and mainly formulates recommendations for the organisation in order to improve impact on employee engagement through gamification. As a result of the research, the author proposes 8 steps that are useful and applicable to any organisation, and as such those may serve a broader purpose than just improving airBaltic Forecaster tool. The objective of the paper is to draw learnings and put forward suggestions for the organ…
Flexibility, Segmentation and Use of Labour in Finnish Retail Trade
1990
The purpose of the study is to analyse the effects of management strategies on the segmentation of five department store labour markets in Finland. (1) The competitive strategies of firms are expected to have different con sequences for the use of labour (2) Within firms, the differentiated use of labour is examined in relation to the use of different flexibility strategies In department stores the most important strategy for obtaining (numerical) flexibility has been the fast growth of part-time work.
The extension of collective agreements in France, Portugal and Spain
2020
This article examines the role of extension provisions for collective agreements in France, Portugal and Spain, three countries that have faced pressure to introduce more flexibility in their employment regimes during recent economic crises. The article establishes the continuing importance of extension provisions for maintaining high bargaining coverage in all three countries and traces the origin of national differences in their evolution to the strategies of the various actors, governments, employers and trade unions, and the context in which they are operating. It also looks at the characteristics of the extension regulations themselves.Cet article examine le rôle des mécanismes d’exten…
An exploratory case study of interactive simulation for teaching Ecology
2016
This paper explores the effectiveness of interactive simulation for teaching a selected complex subject, Ecology, in higher education. Specifically, we carry out a lab intervention using interactive agent based simulation, to teach the complex concept of spatially-explicit predator prey interaction to undergraduate students of an advanced module: BIOU9CE (Community Ecology & Conservation Applications) at the University of Stirling. We propose use of Netlogo, an interactive agent-based simulation tool, and evaluate its effectiveness for learning and teaching of interactive simulation developed specifically for the classroom, compared with an existing, less interactive, simulation tool (R).
In search of a theoretical framework of factors influencing work and life balance
2021
Work and life balance (WLB) has gained noticeable attention amid the pandemic. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the increasing pace of life encouraged the investigation of individual and organisational aspects of WLB. Physically and mentally healthy people help society develop and grow. Health issues caused by work and life imbalance lead to dissatisfaction with both work and life, which, in turn, leads to higher stress and stress-related illnesses, for instance, burnout. From the organisational point of view, WLB is a factor in analysing the efficiency of an enterprise. The consequences of a work-life imbalance are intentional or unintentional absence, high employee turnover, low prod…