68 research outputs found
Private voluntary regulation in Business in the Community and Stonewall: The strengths of weak regulation
Understanding how to effectively regulate labour standards is a central issue in the
field of industrial relations because it significantly impacts the lives of individual
workers, as well as society and the environment at large. In this work, I draw attention
to a relatively new and increasingly relevant method of regulating labour standards
called âprivate voluntary regulationâ. Hitherto, private voluntary regulation has been
widely criticised of being weak and ineffective, particularly due to its lack of
enforceability, its struggle to disseminate meaningful minimum standards and its
potential for shallow implementation within the workplace. However, the existing
literature on private voluntary regulation has generally ignored two substantial issues.
First, research was predominantly conducted in the context of global supply chains,
while national-level private voluntary regulation remains under-studied. Second, the
agency of private actors, such as employers themselves or private collective
organisations who may actively influence its effectiveness has largely been ignored in
favour of structural considerations, such as organisational size, age, sector, and
industry.
To address these research gaps, I identify and evidence the relevance of three
actor-centric independent variables which significantly impact the success of private
voluntary regulation in shaping and influencing labour standards. These are: first, the
âframingâ of private voluntary regulation, comprising of âbusiness-case framingâ and
âethical framingâ; second, the âinteractionsâ between the member firms in collective
organisations, including âcooperationâ and âcompetitionâ; and third, the âgovernanceâ
of private voluntary regulation within firms, including âtop-down governanceâ and
âbottom-up governanceâ. I argue that when these three variables work in conjunction
with one another than labour standards can be effectively raised through private
voluntary regulation.
I empirically substantiate this argument through a comprehensive
investigation of two British collective organisations that are involved in private
voluntary regulation, namely âBusiness in the Communityâ and âStonewallâ, as well as, ten of their member firms. I draw on multi-method data collection and triangulate
three qualitative methods and one quantitative method to obtain more objective and
generalisable empirical findings. These include firstly, a relational content analysis of
documents, articles and press releases; secondly, 91 semi-structured interviews with
experts and representatives of my case study organisations; thirdly, participant
observations at 31 separate events; and finally, two small-scale online surveys with
the member employers of the collective organisations. Through an iterative process
of shuttling back and forth between existing theory and my collected empirical data, I
develop and substantiate a theoretical argument which uses private actor agency to
explain the fluctuating success of private voluntary regulation in raising labour
standards.
Firstly, I find that Business in the Community primarily relies on business-case
framing to convince many employers to join its cause surrounding responsible
business activity. These employers choose to participate in the private voluntary
regulation of labour standards principally because it can result in improved financial
performance through various pathways. This includes better employee recruitment
and retention, the winning of new work contracts, a strengthening of brand image,
and improved compliance with the law. While business-case framing results in high
levels of firm commitment, its profit-centric ideology leads some businesses to merely
make superficial changes to labour standards and even provides some employers with
a smokescreen to hide other malpractices. Stonewall, on the other hand, relies more
strongly on ethical framing which emphasises the notion that joining their
membership is simply âthe right thing to doâ. I show that Stonewall gently challenges
member firms on a moral level which is comparatively a less salient financial
argument, and yet leads to more profound changes in labour standards. However,
both Business in the Community and Stonewall tailor their usage of business-case and
ethical framing depending whom they are talking to, and often use a combination of
both types of framing. In fact, I show that the most successful changes to labour
standards are made in those firms that actively respond to business-case, as well as
ethical framing. Second, Stonewall primarily relies on inter-firm competition through its central
benchmarking tool, namely the âWorkplace Equality Indexâ. It fosters a competitive
environment where employers are encouraged to self-monitor their own workplace
policies and practices, to submit annual applications with supporting evidence, to
receive external feedback, and to actively engage in a ârace to the topâ of constantly
elevating levels of labour standards. Business in the Community also utilises some
successful competition, such as through its annual âResponsible Business Awardsâ; yet,
I found these tools to be rather celebratory and to result in surface-level changes to
labour standards. Instead, the main emphasis of interaction in Business in the
Community is on creating cooperation between employers through its prestigious
business network. This tactic successfully resulted in the dissemination and sharing of
best practice, as well as in some communal projects. However, cooperation through
business networks, I found, may at times remain a self-congratulatory façade so that
employers feel as part of a âresponsible business clubâ, without necessarily raising
labour standards effectively. Competition and cooperation are not necessarily
mutually exclusive however, and the most successful changes are made in those
organisations that are both part of cooperative employer groups and are
simultaneously in constant competition with other businesses.
Finally, my ten firm level case studies revealed that top-down governance and
bottom-up governance each carry distinctive advantages and disadvantages in
implementing changes to labour standards through private voluntary regulation. Top
down governance is most effective when changes are tactically and incrementally
drip-fed into firmsâ organisational culture, as well as actively aligned to their mission
and values. Conversely, top-down governance can become tokenistic when new
policies are not effectively translated into practices and lack dissemination across the
organisation. Bottom-up governance is most effective in those firms where individuals
or groups of employees actively take ownership of new private voluntary regulation
initiatives and passionately use their agency to transform organisational cultures from
within. Employee network groups (e.g. âLGBT employee networksâ) are particularly
valuable tools to drive change, especially when they provide workers with a voice and
the power to influence management decision making through information feedback loops. However, bottom-up governance can at times lack the direction, strategy,
support, and resources to effectively influence labour standards. Once again, my
findings suggest a symbiotic and mutually reinforcing relationship between top-down
and bottom-up governance leading to the most successful examples of change to
labour standards through private voluntary regulation.
Paradoxically, I find that those very aspects of private voluntary regulation that
induce many critics to condemn it as âweakâ, can â when collective organisations and
their member employers utilise their agency in meaningful ways â turn into the
âstrengthsâ of private voluntary regulation. When these private actors manage to
successfully shape and influence private voluntary regulation through framing,
interaction, and governance then it can in fact become a strong form of regulation.
First, business-case and ethical framing can lead to an approachability and trust
between collective organisations and private employers. Second, competition and
cooperation can lead to an ever-evolving set of best practice standards. Third, top
down and bottom-up governed private voluntary regulation can together lead to
deep-rooted changes of organisational culture which emphasise worker voice. Thus,
analogous to Mark Granovetterâs (1973) âstrength of weak tiesâ, the effects of private
voluntary regulation â allegedly a weak form of regulation â can through private actor
agency, be strong
MIMAS: an innovative tool for network-based high density oligonucleotide microarray data management and annotation
BACKGROUND: The high-density oligonucleotide microarray (GeneChip) is an important tool for molecular biological research aiming at large-scale detection of small nucleotide polymorphisms in DNA and genome-wide analysis of mRNA concentrations. Local array data management solutions are instrumental for efficient processing of the results and for subsequent uploading of data and annotations to a global certified data repository at the EBI (ArrayExpress) or the NCBI (GeneOmnibus). DESCRIPTION: To facilitate and accelerate annotation of high-throughput expression profiling experiments, the Microarray Information Management and Annotation System (MIMAS) was developed. The system is fully compliant with the Minimal Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) convention. MIMAS provides life scientists with a highly flexible and focused GeneChip data storage and annotation platform essential for subsequent analysis and interpretation of experimental results with clustering and mining tools. The system software can be downloaded for academic use upon request. CONCLUSION: MIMAS implements a novel concept for nation-wide GeneChip data management whereby a network of facilities is centered on one data node directly connected to the European certified public microarray data repository located at the EBI. The solution proposed may serve as a prototype approach to array data management between research institutes organized in a consortium
Rank Difference Analysis of Microarrays (RDAM), a novel approach to statistical analysis of microarray expression profiling data
BACKGROUND: A key step in the analysis of microarray expression profiling data is the identification of genes that display statistically significant changes in expression signals between two biological conditions. RESULTS: We describe a new method, Rank Difference Analysis of Microarrays (RDAM), which estimates the total number of truly varying genes and assigns a p-value to each signal variation. Information on a group of differentially expressed genes includes the sensitivity and the false discovery rate. We demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of our approach by applying it to a large synthetic expression data set and to a biological data set obtained by comparing vegetatively-growing wild type and tor2-mutant yeast strains. In both cases we observed a significant improvement of the power of analysis when our method is compared to another popular nonparametric method. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided a valuable new statistical method to analyze microarray data. We conclude that the good quality of the results obtained by RDAM is mainly due to the quasi-perfect equalization of variation distribution, which is related to the standardization procedure used and to the measurement of variation by rank difference
The unexpected survival of employer collective action in the UK
The study of employer collective organizations has been revitalized recently but the most effective mode of theoretical analysis is debated. This article applies Schmitter and Streeck's competing logics of membership and influence framework to employer organizations in the United Kingdom. While literature using this framework argues that employer collective bodies are likely to prioritize the logic of influence by influencing the state through partnering with governments, we find that the opposite happened in the United Kingdom. Changing political economy meant that the logic of influence decayed in salience although did not disappear. Employer organizations prioritized instead the logic of membership to ensure survival
Profiling spermatogenic failure in adult testes bearing Sox9-deficient Sertoli cells identifies genes involved in feminization, inflammation and stress
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Sox9 </it>(<it>Sry </it>box containing gene 9) is a DNA-binding transcription factor involved in chondrocyte development and sex determination. The protein's absence in testicular Sertoli nurse cells has been shown to disrupt testicular function in adults but little is known at the genome-wide level about molecular events concomitant with testicular break-down.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To determine the genome-wide effect on mRNA concentrations triggered by the absence of <it>Sox9 </it>in Sertoli cells we analysed adult testicular tissue from wild-type versus mutant mice with high-density oligonucleotide microarrays and integrated the output of this experiment with regulatory motif predictions and protein-protein network data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report the genome-wide mRNA signature of adult testes lacking <it>Sox9 </it>in Sertoli cells before and after the onset of late spermatogenic failure as compared to fertile controls. The GeneChip data integrated with evolutionarily conserved <it>Sox9 </it>DNA binding motifs and regulatory network data identified genes involved in feminization, stress response and inflammation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results extend previous observations that genes required for female gonadogenesis are up-regulated in the absence of <it>Sox9 </it>in fetal Sertoli cells to the adult stage. Importantly, we identify gene networks involved in immunological processes and stress response which is reminiscent of a phenomenon occurring in a sub-group of infertile men. This suggests mice lacking <it>Sox9 </it>in their Sertoli cells to be a potentially useful model for adult human testicular failure.</p
Fhl5/Act, a CREM-binding transcriptional activator required for normal sperm maturation and morphology, is not essential for testicular gene expression
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The LIM domain protein Fhl5 was previously found to interact with CREM, a DNA binding transcriptional regulator necessary for spermiogenesis in mammals. Co-transfection experiments using heterologous promoter constructs indicated a role for Fhl5 in transcriptional up-regulation of CREM-dependent testicular genes. Male mice lacking Fhl5 were reported to be fertile but displayed partially abnormal sperm maturation and morphology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To identify Fhl5 testicular target genes we carried out two whole-genome expression profiling experiments using high-density oligonucleotide microarrays and total testis samples from Fhl5 wild-type versus homozygous mutant mice first in different and then in isogenic strain backgrounds.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Weak signal differences were detected in non-isogenic samples but no statistically significant expression changes were observed when isogenic Fhl5 mutant and wild-type samples were compared.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The outcome of these experiments suggests that testicular expression profiling is extremely sensitive to the genetic background and that Fhl5 is not essential for testicular gene expression to a level detected by microarray-based measurements. This might be due to redundant function of the related and similarly expressed protein Fhl4.</p
Employer organisations transformed
Employer organisations and the literature examining them have transformed since their inception in the 19th century. We systematically review this literature and the evolving role of employer organisations by focusing on the most cited publications of this body of academic work. This article provides a synopsis of our current understanding of employer organisations, identifies gaps in our knowledge, and develops the following argument. Employer organisations adapted to changing socioâeconomic contexts by evolving within and across three rolesâas industrial relations actor, political actor, and service provider. Historically, employer organisations were predominantly understood as an industrial relations actor with collective bargaining as their defining activity. However, employer organisations also influenced the political process through lobbying and participating in corporatist arrangements, although more recently their provision of member services has grown in scope and importance
Revisiting voluntarism: private voluntary regulation by employer forums in the United Kingdom
The abstract contributes to the literature by identifying a new form of voluntarism, the employer-led voluntarism of Employer Forums in the United Kingdom. Forums carry out private voluntary regulation to raise labour and social standards within their member firms through introducing codes of conducts and implementing norms through assessments, benchmarking, and certification. The article compares this new form with the traditional approach where unions and employer associations regulate jointly through collective bargaining. While the scope, scale, and impact of new and traditional voluntarism diverge, both are underpinned by the regulation of Employment Relations by non-state actors. Voluntarism is not in secular decline, but instead continues through the emergence of new employer-led forms
Ashbya Genome Database 3.0: a cross-species genome and transcriptome browser for yeast biologists
BACKGROUND: The Ashbya Genome Database (AGD) 3.0 is an innovative cross-species genome and transcriptome browser based on release 40 of the Ensembl developer environment. DESCRIPTION: AGD 3.0 provides information on 4726 protein-encoding loci and 293 non-coding RNA genes present in the genome of the filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii. A synteny viewer depicts the chromosomal location and orientation of orthologous genes in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genome-wide expression profiling data obtained with high-density oligonucleotide microarrays (GeneChips) are available for nearly all currently annotated protein-coding loci in A. gossypii and S. cerevisiae. CONCLUSION: AGD 3.0 hence provides yeast- and genome biologists with comprehensive report pages including reliable DNA annotation, Gene Ontology terms associated with S. cerevisiae orthologues and RNA expression data as well as numerous links to external sources of information. The database is accessible at
- âŠ