A business case or social responsibility? How top managers’ support for work-life arrangements relates to the national context

The extent to which organizations supplement statutory work-life arrangements varies systematically between countries. Empirical evidence on how organizations’ approaches to work-life arrangements relate to the national context is, however, mixed. This study aims to elucidate this complex relationship by focusing on how top managers’ considerations about whether or not to provide work-life arrangements are related to the national context. Semi-structured interviews were held with 78 top managers in Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and the UK. This study finds that top managers’ relate their considerations whether to provide work-life arrangements to the extensiveness of national legislation: only in the context of few state work-life policies top managers saw it as a business issue. Top managers also take into consideration what they believe is expected of them by employees and society at large, which can work either in favor or against the provision of work-life arrangements. Perceiving the provision of work-life arrangements as a social responsibility seems more apparent for top managers in Slovenia and Finland. By leaving the social responsibility argument out of the central framework of most studies, the existing literature appears to tell the story mainly from an Anglo-Saxon perspective placing business oriented arguments central

Развитие экстремального туризма в Крыму

Целью данной работы является на основе географического анализа факторов становления и особенностей развития экстремального туризма в Крыму разработать рекомендации по усовершенствованию данной отрасли туристской деятельности для создания привлекательного образа Крыма на международной арене

Зміни в складі населення Донбасу в 1920-1926 рр.

У статті на основі вивчення літератури та джерел досліджуються зміни в складі населення Донбасу в 1920-1926 рр. Особливу увагу приділено аналізу даних переписів 1920, 1923, 1926 рр. Показано вплив політичних чинників на зміни чисельності населення, природний та механічний приріст.In article consider the Donbas population changes in 1920-1926 years, in his storage quantity and other. Shown changes dynamics quantity of population in 1920, 1923, 1926 years. The conclusions on the nature of influence of political factoris into changes quantity of population, natural and mechanical increase

Understanding the effects of Covid-19 through a life course lens

The Covid-19 pandemic is shaking fundamental assumptions about the human life course in societies around the world. In this essay, we draw on our collective expertise to illustrate how a life course perspective can make critical contributions to understanding the pandemic’s effects on individuals, families, and populations. We explore the pandemic’s implications for the organization and experience of life transitions and trajectories within and across central domains: health, personal control and planning, social relationships and family, education, work and careers, and migration and mobility. We consider both the life course implications of being infected by the Covid-19 virus or attached to someone who has; and being affected by the pandemic’s social, economic, cultural, and psychological consequences. It is our goal to offer some programmatic observations on which life course research and policies can build as the pandemic’s short- and long-term consequences unfold

Citizenship Norms in Eastern Europe

Research on Eastern Europe stresses the weakness of its civil society and the lack of political and social involvement, neglecting the question: What do people themselves think it means to be a good citizen? This study looks at citizens’ definitions of good citizenship in Poland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, using 2002 European Social Survey data. We investigate mean levels of civic mindedness in these countries and perform regression analyses to investigate whether factors traditionally associated with civic and political participation are also correlated with citizenship norms across Eastern Europe. We show that mean levels of civic mindedness differ significantly across the four Eastern European countries. We find some support for theories on civic and political participation when explaining norms of citizenship, but also demonstrate that individual-level characteristics are differently related to citizenship norms across the countries of our study. Hence, our findings show that Eastern Europe is not a monolithic and homogeneous bloc, underscoring the importance of taking the specificities of countries into account

A Sustainable Workforce in Europe: Bringing The Organization Back in

Globalization, economic fluctuations, the aging population, technological advances, and rapidly changing social structures pose new challenges to creating a sustainable workforce in Europe. While few would question the centrality of organizations in nurturing a productive and flourishing workforce, sociologists of work have long refrained from engaging with their role. This book responds to a growing chorus in research that we must ‘bring the organization back in.’ It has the following aims: To provide insight from an international comparative perspective into the availability of organizational policies for a sustainable workforce and their use by employees in different sectors across Europe. To analyze the consequences of the availability and use of investments in engendering productive and satisfied employees and cohesive and profitable workplaces in different sectors across Europe. To introduce and integrate the meso (organizational) level into research on the micro and macro levels of employment. This first chapter introduces the structure of the book and its chapters. The chapters are organized into three parts. In Part I, we provide a description of the data we gathered and the institutional background of the selected countries. In Part II, we analyze the organizational availability of various policies and how employees use them, highlighting barriers to investing in workforce sustainability at different levels. Finally, in Part III, we discuss the consequences of organizational policies for employees

A Sustainable Workforce in Europe: Future Challenges

This final chapter synthesizes and discusses the results of the previous chapters, identifies future challenges, and makes suggestions for future research. It shows which employees use different types of organizational investments and what the consequences are for a range of outcomes. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of studying the organizational level in addition to the employee and country level. The chapter concludes by identifying future challenges for a sustainable workforce, such as the future of work, analyzing the family and community in addition to the organization, the socioeconomic divide in workplaces, and inequality between countries