712 research outputs found
Pulled apart, pushed together: diversity and unity within the Congress of South African Trade Unions
This is a study of horizontal and vertical solidarity within a national labour movement, based on a nationwide survey of members of affiliated unions of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. On the one hand, the survey reveals relatively high levels of vertical and horizontal solidarity, despite the persistence of some cleavages on gender and racial lines. On the other hand, the maintenance and deepening of existing horizontal and vertical linkages in a rapidly changing socio-economic context, represents one of many challenges facing organized labour in an industrializing economy. COSATU’s strength is contingent not only on an effective organizational capacity, and a supportive network linking key actors and interest groupings, but also on the ability to meet the concerns of existing constituencies and those assigned to highly marginalized categories of labour
The synthesis of the enantiomers of lipoic acid
Lipoic acid is a biologically important molecule.
Whilst the racemate has been available by a number of
syntheses for many years, no convenient preparation of the
pure enantiomers has so far been described. All the
evidence so far presented indicates that only the
dextrorotatory isomer is active in vivo, the absolute
configuration of which has not been established with
certainty. To further elucidate the biochemical role(s)
and biosynthesis of this compound, a convenient EPC
synthesis would be beneficial. This thesis describes
the development of a route to the (R)- and (S)- forms
of the target molecule from a member of the "chiral pool".
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International Homogenization or the Persistence of National Practices? The Remaking of Industrial Relations in Mozambique
This paper is the first systematic attempt to provide an overview of industrial relations practices at firm level in Mozambique. Through a nationwide survey of firms, the paper assesses the extent to which specific sets of practices are associated with particular regions, and/or sectors, and explores the relationship between IR practice and national institutional realities. The survey revealed that informalism and autocratic managerialism characterize the practice of employment relations. But it would be mistaken to assume a convergence towards a global systematic archetype of low wage/low skill/low security of tenure set of practices. Instead, the authors conclude, contemporary Mozambique employment relations are an example of external market pressures being channelled and moulded by the persistence of national level realities that stretch back to the colonial era. In the absence of effective institutional mechanisms, familiar conventions are likely to persist because people know how these work in practice.Cet essai se veut une tentative systĂ©matique de prĂ©senter une vue gĂ©nĂ©rale des pratiques de relations industrielles au niveau de l’entreprise au Mozambique. Une prĂ©occupation centrale des Ă©tudes actuelles sur les relations industrielles en Afrique porte sur les effets de la concurrence mondiale accrue et l’adoption de politiques nĂ©olibĂ©rales par les gouvernements nationaux. Dans la plupart des cas, on postule que cela est venu aggraver les faiblesses institutionnelles actuelles, entraĂ®nant ainsi une multiplication des politiques rĂ©pressives Ă l’endroit du travail. NĂ©anmoins, il existe un minimum de preuve Ă l’effet que, dans quelques cas, ces pressions ont connu un contrepoids avec la venue de pratiques plus inclusives et pluralistes Ă l’échelle de l’entreprise.Par contre, un certain nombre de travaux sur les pays en voie de dĂ©veloppement nous incite Ă croire que les processus Ă l’oeuvre reflètent des choix spĂ©cifiques façonnĂ©s Ă la fois par un hĂ©ritage historique et par des rĂ©alitĂ©s rĂ©gionales particulières. En s’appuyant sur une enquĂŞte Ă l’échelle nationale auprès des entreprises du Mozambique, cet essai analyse la nature particulière des relations industrielles au niveau de l’entreprise en cherchant Ă vĂ©rifier s’il existe une convergence dans les pratiques d’adaptation concurrentielles vers le haut (high road), i.e. vers une meilleure productivitĂ© et de meilleures conditions de travail ou vers le bas (low road), i.e. en rĂ©duisant les conditions de travail, ou si un modèle de relations industrielles spĂ©cifiques au Mozambique persiste vraiment. L’essai cherche de plus Ă vĂ©rifier dans quelle mesure des ensembles spĂ©cifiques de pratiques sont liĂ©s Ă des rĂ©gions ou Ă des secteurs particuliers et il tente de saisir la relation entre la pratique des relations industrielles et les rĂ©alitĂ©s institutionnelles nationales.Au Mozambique, il n’y a pas de doute que les pressions exercĂ©es par les institutions transnationales et par la faiblesse des institutions nationales ont crĂ©Ă© une situation oĂą un nombre relativement important d’entreprises se trouvent enfermĂ©es dans un Ă©tat d’hyper-flexibilitĂ©. L’enquĂŞte a trouvĂ© très peu d’indices de la prĂ©sence d’un amalgame de pratiques plus progressistes dans des rĂ©gions ou des secteurs particuliers, ou encore dans des entreprises de taille particulière, malgrĂ© les changements au niveau de la performance de divers secteurs ou entre des entreprises de tailles diffĂ©rentes et malgrĂ© des dĂ©sĂ©quilibres flagrants. Dans la mĂŞme foulĂ©e, il y a peu de preuve Ă l’effet que les actions de l’Organisation internationale du travail (OIT) aient favorisĂ© le dĂ©veloppement de meilleures pratiques; les entreprises ignorent ou Ă©vitent des pans entiers de la lĂ©gislation ouvrière du Mozambique, que les lois aient Ă©tĂ© Ă©laborĂ©es ou non dans le respect des directives de l’OIT.Cependant, il ne serait pas juste de postuler que les relations du travail au Mozambique reflètent en partie un mouvement de convergence vers des politiques et des pratiques de maintien en emploi caractĂ©risĂ©es par des bas niveaux de salaires, de qualification et de sĂ©curitĂ© au travail. Au contraire, comme semble l’indiquer l’institutionnalisme critique, les relations d’emploi reflètent non seulement les pressions internationales, mais Ă©galement la pĂ©rennitĂ© des structures institutionnelles et des distorsions internes.Les relations actuelles d’emploi au Mozambique sont au moins en partie dĂ©pendantes du cheminement suivant : les pressions du marchĂ© externe canalisĂ©es et façonnĂ©es par des rĂ©alitĂ©s institutionnelles au niveau national, alors que des continuitĂ©s clairement identifiables s’étendent jusqu’à l’ère coloniale. L’aspect central de ce phĂ©nomène se traduit par une dimension informelle et durable des relations : la gestion tend Ă ĂŞtre personnalisĂ©e et patriarcale, contrairement aux procĂ©dures rationnelles et bureaucratiques qui dominent dans les sociĂ©tĂ©s dĂ©veloppĂ©es. L’enquĂŞte a rĂ©vĂ©lĂ© que les dirigeants prĂ©fèrent des approches informelles en matière de formation et de communication interne, au lieu d’emprunter des procĂ©dures formelles (high road) ou pas de procĂ©dure du tout (low road). Ces mĂŞmes dirigeants n’apprĂ©cient pas de voir leur marge de manoeuvre limitĂ©e par des contrats de travail.D’un cĂ´tĂ©, le caractère d’informalitĂ© qui caractĂ©rise les relations du travail et la gestion des ressources humaines au Mozambique n’est pas fonctionnel Ă cause des règles instables et faibles qui encadrent les interactions sociales Ă l’intĂ©rieur des entreprises et entre ces dernières, le marchĂ© des produits Ă©tant caractĂ©risĂ© par une concurrence fĂ©roce et la sĂ©curitĂ© d’emploi Ă©tant faible. Le marchĂ© va ainsi miner toute notion d’engagement mutuel, limitant en passant l’efficacitĂ© des rĂ©seaux informels, qui pourraient compenser l’absence d’une mĂ©diation effective, institutionnelle et formelle. D’un autre cĂ´tĂ©, ce caractère d’informalitĂ© a favorisĂ© l’émergence d’un certain dynamisme en permettant Ă de nombreuses entreprises et Ă des cohortes de dirigeants de survivre aux contrecoups externes, incluant la dĂ©colonisation rapide, l’expĂ©rience d’un socialisme d’État, la guerre civile et enfin le nĂ©olibĂ©ralisme. De lĂ , pendant que les employeurs peuvent ĂŞtre guidĂ©s par la logique de la concurrence (voir Frenkel et Kuruvilla, 2002), le dĂ©sir chez ces derniers de couper les coĂ»ts ne se traduit pas par une uniformisation globale d’un modèle empruntant les stratĂ©gies d’adaptation vers le bas : des variations nationales persistent, qui reflètent une expĂ©rience historique particulière, la rĂ©gulation courante et les manquements aux règles.Il est probable qu’on retrouve plusieurs similitudes entre les pratiques de relations du travail et de gestion des ressources humaines au Mozambique et celles qui ont cours dans d’autres pays tropicaux africains. Les instruments que nous avons mis au point pour cette Ă©tude pourraient servir Ă suivre l’évolution des rĂ©formes institutionnelles et aussi ĂŞtre utilisĂ©s pour des Ă©tudes comparatives.Este documento es el primer intento sistemático de ofrecer una visiĂłn global de las relaciones industriales (RI) practicadas a nivel de la firma en Mozambique. A partir de una encuesta de nivel nacional administrada en las firmas, el documento evalĂşa de quĂ© manera un conjunto de practicas están asociadas a regiones o sectores particulares. Se explora tambiĂ©n la relaciĂłn entre las prácticas de RI y las realidades institucionales nacionales. La encuesta revela que el informalismo y la gestiĂłn autocrática caracterizan la práctica de las relaciones de empleo. Pero serĂa errĂłneo asumir una convergencia hacia un arquetipo global sistemático de bajos salarios – poca calificaciĂłn – poca seguridad del conjunto de prácticas. Los autores concluyen más bien que las relaciones de empleo en el Mozambique contemporáneo son un ejemplo de las presiones del mercado externo que están siendo canalizadas y moldeadas por la persistencia de realidades de nivel nacional, sobrevivencias de la era colonial. En ausencia de mecanismos institucionales efectivos, las convenciones familiares parecen persistir porque la gente conoce como ellas trabajan en la práctica
Employment regulation and productivity: is there a case for deregulation?
This paper explores empirically the economic validity of the relatively limited approach to the regulation of employment protection pursued in the UK over the last three decades and within the European Union more recently. It does so by comparing the UK’s manufacturing labour productivity performance with those of three countries – France, Germany and Sweden – that possess more stringent employment protection laws. The findings reveal that while productivity growth in the UK was superior to France and Sweden, it was lower than in Germany. More generally, the study’s findings fail to support the existence of a straightforward negative relationship between regulatory stringency and productivity growth
Project Evaluation of Community Wealth Building Projects in Hertfordshire
The purpose of this report is to evaluate the Community Wealth Building projects, funded by the UK Community Renewal Fund, across the 10 local authorities in Hertfordshire. It is evaluated on the basis of the Secretary of State’s Evaluation Guidance. The evaluation is then used to develop and present actions, opportunities, and recommendations in order to take Community Wealth Building work further forward. The key findings from the evaluation are two-fold. Firstly, focusing on the individual initiatives funded via the Community Renewal Fund across the five programme themes of employment, procurement, grants scheme, planning and feasibility, all of them were successfully implemented and delivered. With all of them, to varying degrees, overachieving in terms of the outcomes and outputs predicted prior to delivery. Secondly, adopting a more long-term perspective, there is only some evidence of the processes and infrastructure being developed to support Community Wealth Building as regular and widespread activities across the county. In short, although each individual initiative taken in isolation was a clear success, there is still some distance to go before some of the greater benefits from Community Wealth Building can be achieved. However, this is not to say that these won’t be achieved, evidence and experiences from other local authorities across the UK highlight that it is a long and challenging journey that does require continued commitment over extended periods, and across the 10 local authorities commendable progress has been made to date. The almost universal acceptance of the importance of social value as a guiding principle in decision making is a crucial step forward, and a continued acceptance combined with an ongoing commitment to the principles of Community Wealth Building should deliver much greater benefits in the future. On the basis of the evaluation, we have developed a series of detailed and specific recommendations within the report. However, in terms of widening the scope of Community Wealth Building across the county and facilitating the successful delivery of numerous social value initiatives, the following are the key recommendations. • Undertake skills audits through a social value and community need lens. • Identify skills gaps within Hertfordshire public sector procurement spends. • Develop a county-wide portal for monitoring and evidencing social value. • Capacity and network building, including engagement of the most important, known, stakeholders, and important representatives of each relevant council. There are several Participatory Action Research Methods that can be deployed to this end
A Practical Introduction to Mechanistic Modeling of Disease Transmission in Veterinary Science.
Computer-based disease spread models are frequently used in veterinary science to simulate disease spread. They are used to predict the impacts of the disease, plan and assess surveillance, or control strategies, and provide insights about disease causation by comparing model outputs with real life data. There are many types of disease spread models, and here we present and describe the implementation of a particular type: individual-based models. Our aim is to provide a practical introduction to building individual-based disease spread models. We also introduce code examples with the goal to make these techniques more accessible to those who are new to the field. We describe the important steps in building such models before, during and after the programming stage, including model verification (to ensure that the model does what was intended), validation (to investigate whether the model results reflect the modeled system), and convergence analysis (to ensure models of endemic diseases are stable before outputs are collected). We also describe how sensitivity analysis can be used to assess the potential impact of uncertainty about model parameters. Finally, we provide an overview of some interesting recent developments in the field of disease spread models
Pd/ZnO catalysts for direct CO2 hydrogenation to methanol
The direct hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol is crucial for providing a means of CO2 fixation and a way to store cleanly produced hydrogen in a more energy-dense and transportable form. Here we have prepared two series of Pd/ZnO catalysts, both by immobilisation of PVA-protected Pd colloids and by Pd impregnation of PdCl2 to investigate structure activity relationships for direct CO2 hydrogenation. Very different performances were found for the different preparation methods, and the Pd loading and pre-reduction of the catalysts were shown to be important factors for optimising methanol yield. The crucial factor for high methanol yield is the formation of a Pd–Zn alloy, either during the reaction itself, or better by high temperature pre-reduction. The formation of the alloy greatly reduces CO production by the reverse water gas shift reaction. The catalysts prepared by sol-immobilisation were relatively stable to thermal treatment. In contrast, the impregnated catalysts were much less thermally stable, due to the presence of remnant chloride on the surface of the catalyst, which was absent for the case of sol immobilisation preparation. The results illustrate the importance of controlling the PdZn particle size and its surface structure for the catalysts to achieve high methanol selectivity (60%, the rest being CO) and conversion (11%) at 250 °C and 20 bar. Selectivity for sol-immobilised catalysts decreases from 60% at 3 nm average diameter, to 20% at 7 nm
A multilevel analysis of the use of individual pay-for-performance systems
Compensation systems such as individualized pay for performance (I-PFP) schemes for employees represent an important approach to aligning employer-employee interests. However, the adoption of I-PFP is much less common in many countries than in the USA. Employing a multi-level analysis of over 4,000 firms in 26 countries, we explore determinants of its adoption. At the country level we distinguish between cultural and institutional (labor regulation institutions) influences. At the firm level, we distinguish firms that view HR as strategically important and firms that are foreign-owned. On the one hand, our findings indicate that both cultural and institutional effects at country level significantly influence the adoption of I-PFP. On the other hand, senior managers’ agency counts. We find the effect of labor regulation on I-PFP to be mediated by its effects on labor union influence and we find the effects of culture on I-PFP to be entirely mediated by labor regulation and (country level) union influence
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