Too many cooks?: changing wages and job ladders in the food industry

Consolidation and outsourcing in the food industry have created higher-paying food prep jobs, but also have erected barriers for lower-skilled workers trying to move up the ladder.Food industry and trade

Does Gibrat's Law Hold Amongst Dairy Farmers in Northern Ireland?

This paper tests whether the Law of Proportionate Effects (Gibrat, 1931), which states that farms grow at a rate that is independent of their size, holds for the dairy farms in Northern Ireland. Previous studies have tended to concentrate on testing whether the law holds for all farms. The methodology used in this study permits investigation of whether the law holds for some farms or all farms according to their size. The approach used avoids the subjective splitting of samples, which tends to bias results. The finding shows that the Gibrat law does hold except in the case of small farms. This is in accordance with previous findings that Gibrat's law tends to hold when only larger farms are considered, but tends to fail when smaller farms are included in the analysis. Implications and further extensions, as well as some alternatives to the proposed methodology are discussed.Gibrat's law, quantile regression, sample selection bias, Integrated Conditional Moments test, Agricultural and Food Policy, C12, C14, O49, Q19,

Strategies, snarks and stories: SME owner manager perceptions of business advisers

Purpose The aim is to examine the perceptions of small business entrepreneurs regarding the efficacy of external business advisers in delivering sustainable strategic and operational guidance. Design/methodology/approach The research is interpretivist, exploring the narratives of SME owner/managers in manufacturing. Five in depth interviews were carried out, revealing a range of decision stories about the use of external business advisers. Research limitations/implications A small scale study, it would be worthwhile to examine the perceptions of additional entrepreneurs to business advisers, in order to compare research findings. Findings Whilst there was some scepticism towards the use of advisers in certain situations, the research revealed that levels of trust, relationship building and the credibility of the consultant are substantial factors in determining whether the engagement is successful or not. Practical implications Policy regarding advice to small businesses should be framed in terms of the local context of the firm and its owner, rather than on broad and generalisable systems of business knowledge. Time and effort is required in order to build a sustainable relationship between advisers and owners and it is recommended particular attention is paid to the process. Social implications The research suggests that potentially, industrial policy regarding current delivery of small business advice requires readjustments towards more of a relationship focus. Originality/value Little established research appears to exist in relation to the tendency or otherwise, for SME decision makers to pursue and utilise external advice. This paper helps to fill an important gap in the literature whilst offering some significant and nuanced insights into the perceptions of SME owner managers

Reviews

Successful Instructional Diagrams by Ric Lowe, London, Kogan Page, 1993. ISBN: 0–7494–0711–5

Reviews

Technology‐based Learning Environments: Psychological and Educational Foundations edited by S. Vosniadou, E. De Corte and H. Mandl, volume 137 in NATO ASI Series F (Computer and Systems Sciences), Berlin, Springer‐Verlag, ISBN: 0–387–58253–3, 1994

The brain makes the fit: on the materialist hypothesis to consciousness, neuropsychology and person-organisation fit

This theory paper presents an analysis of the materialist hypothesis to consciousness and its implications for person–organization (P–O) fit. Some implications from neuropsychology are also considered. Three implications for P–O fit are discussed: (1) how it affects the underpinning theory; (2) how it changes our definition of the term; and, (3) how P–O fit is captured. The materialist hypothesis reinforces the underpinning theory, but causes a redefinition of P–O fit. It suggests that P–O fit should be defined in terms of the individual employee's unconscious physical interaction of internal features and environmental stimuli. The review also suggests that researchers need to consider using data gathering techniques that capture unconscious dimensions of P–O fit

Mapping organizational members' sense of fit

Despite its importance in the organizational behavior literature, person–organization (P–O) fit remains an elusive construct. One reason for this is the lack of research about organizational members’ own sense of their P–O fit. In this paper we report an empirical study that explored organizational members’ own sense of fit using storytelling and causal mapping techniques. The results suggest that organizational members categorize their perceptions of their fit into five discrete domains (job, people, employment, values, and extrawork) comprising thirteen subdomains: nature of work, profession or vocation, skills and knowledge, emotions, relationships with colleagues, relationship with line manager, physical environment, conditions of employment, opportunities for growth and development, organizational values, mission, family and personal life. Reviews of respondents’ causal maps and interview transcripts gave some insight into the consequences of organizational members’ perceptions of fit and provided further insights into the nature of fit. These insights included the fragility of fit, how the degree of seniority changed the emphasis in organizational members’ fit, and the role and nature of trigger events that change people’s sense of fit from good fit to misfit

Impact of the abolition of EU Milk quotas on Agriculture in the UK

In recent years the CAP has undergone significant reforms, but the dairy sector has largely avoided wholesale changes. The sector, however, is now faced with a significant effort by the Commission to instigate reform. In this study the FAPRI-UK modelling system is simulated to identify the impact of abolishing or phasing out EU milk quotas on the dairy sector in the UK and the results are compared against a 2007 Baseline projection (2007--2016). The results demonstrate that although the impact of the abolition of dairy quotas is fairly modest at the EU-25 level, significant impacts are apparent at the individual country level.Milk Quotas, CAP Reform, Commodity Modelling, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

The migration and racialisation of doctors from the Indian subcontinent

This research identifies and examines the circumstances and processes surrounding the migration and racialisation of doctors from the Indian subcontinent to Britain. Theoretically the research will critically evaluate several current debates within sociology and reconstructs a different set of criteria to that which has until recently governed investigations into racism. The research argues that the concept of 'race' is an ideological construction with no analytical role to play in the investigation of racism and discrimination. The real object of analysis is the development and reproduction of racism as an ideology within specific historical and material conjunctures determined by the uneven development of capitalism. Within this context a full explanation of the migration and racialisation of doctors from the Indian subcontinent requires not only an examination of the post-war era, but also an investigation of the origins of that migration and racialisation during the pre-1945 period when India was the subject of British rule. A great deal of contemporary research on migration and racism, has tended to concentrate on unskilled and semi-skilled migrant labour. This study will focus on the neglected area of the 'professions', through an investigation of doctors from the Indian subcontinent and their relationship with the British 'professional' occupation of medicine. Through the exegesis and critique of the 'sociology of professions', the research will demonstrate that doctors from the Indian subcontinent represent a racialised fraction of the new middle class. The main question surrounding the analysis of the relationship between Indian doctors and the British 'professional' occupation of medicine as 'gatekeepers' of the occupation, will focus on the relationship between professionalism and racism. The research will contend that the content of professionalism does not merely define certain occupations as 'professions', but more importantly, professionalism like racism is an ideology. Professionalism not only operates to justify and legitimate the supposed special status of medicine, but it also reinforces racist exclusionary practices in a 'sanitised' form within the occupation. This provides the research with the rare opportunity of analysing the nature and content of two ideologies operating within the same arena: the relationship between racism and professionalism. This will illustrate that the racism which black migrant 'professional' labour is subject to, does not only operate in a functional way for capitalism in providing labour for the less desirable specialisms of medicine, but also operates through the mediation of the occupation of medicine to help reproduce the 'professional status' of the occupation