Social enterprise as a socially rational business

What is the goal of social enterprise policy? Is it the creation of a ‘not-for-profit’ or ‘more-than-profit’ business movement? In institutional policy circles, arguments are shaped by the desire to protect assets for the community, while entrepreneurial discourses favour a mixture of investment sources, surplus sharing and inclusive systems of governance. This article uses data from a critical ethnography to offer a third perspective. Human behaviour is a product of, and support system for, our socio-sexual choices. A grounded theory of social and economic capital is developed that integrates sexuality into organisation development. This constructs business organisations as complex centres of community-building replete with economic and social goals. By viewing corporate governance from this perspective social enterprise is reconceived as a business movement guided by social rationality with the long-term goal of distributing social and economic capital across stakeholder groups to satisfy individual and collective needs.</p

Interpersonal dynamics: a communitarian perspective

Conventional theories of power within organisations focus on the extent to which one party can impose their will on others through social influence. Discussion of the way that same-sex and opposite-sex attraction impacts on the workplace is rarely theorised either because it is considered uncivilised or taboo. Investigations are also hampered by resistance amongst research participants even when care is taken to establish mixed groups from different organisations. As a result, holistic theories of management control that take account of sexual behaviour remain rare. This paper examines empirical data from an 18-month critical ethnography to present new theory on interpersonal dynamics, socialisation and identification. A grounded theory is developed that suggests social decisions are closely linked to the psychology of giving and getting attention and assistance. As relationships develop, patterns of giving and receiving create economic and social dependencies that evolve into the tacit rules of social life and affect the bonds between people. Sharp conflicts occur when one party wants to change the relationship and the other party resists. The process of renegotiation affects the stability of directly and indirectly affected relationships and can change patterns of influence and bases of social power. Individuals’ commitment and health can be affected. Decision-making and impacts are affected by the state of other relationships, past experiences, social and economic dependency and the aspirations of both parties. Findings are reviewed against existing theories of power to offer a radical perspective that power has two-faces, the ability to influence and the ability to resist influence. Authoritarian behaviours can be activated by perceptions of powerlessness rather than a sense of power. The implications for handling conflicts and harassment claims are discussed, together with comment on gender theory and its relationship to corporate governance.</p

Department of Natural Resources - Special Investigation of The Lewis and Clark State Park in Onawa, July 1st, 2001 through November 30, 2004

Other Audit Reports - Special Investigatio

Gendering, courtship and pay equality: developing attraction theory to understand work-life balance and entrepreneurial activity

Objectives: This paper examines one of the most intractable problems of the last 40 years: the difficulty in closing the pay inequality gap. Current wisdom is that the pay gap exists because of men's power to control the workplace, and men's dominant position in society generally. This paper examines an emergent literature on matriarchal power structures and proposes Attraction Theory as a holistic framework. Prior Work: This paper acknowledges a range of feminist literature that examines the underlying social relations and power structures that impact on pay differentials. This is critiqued on the basis of findings from courtship research as well as studies emerging from liberal / progressive writers in the men's movement. Approach: This paper is conceptual, using an inter-disciplinary understanding of social processes to critically appraise both the dominant discourse on equal pay and its emergent alternative. Attraction Theory is presented as a framework for exploring a complex discourse that unequal pay exists both because of men's power to control the workplace and women's power to control courtship and family life. Implications: Tackling pay inequality and work-life balance issues by focussing on power sharing in the workplace represents only a partial policy solution. Further progress depends on power-sharing in parental rights through academic recognition and political action to tackle negative stereotypes that impact on men during romantic courtship, conception, birth and divorce. Value: The value of the paper lies in the originality of the analysis and the range of insights that Attraction Theory provides into societal dynamics that impact on equal pay. The identification of paradoxes in the dominant discourse opens up new avenues for research and policy development on work-life balance. Whether these will close the pay gap is unclear, but it would advance equality and diversity goals by creating confidence that consensual choices rather the institutional inequalities perpetuate any remaining inequalities reported in statistics.</p

Geometric Graph Properties of the Spatial Preferred Attachment model

The spatial preferred attachment (SPA) model is a model for networked information spaces such as domains of the World Wide Web, citation graphs, and on-line social networks. It uses a metric space to model the hidden attributes of the vertices. Thus, vertices are elements of a metric space, and link formation depends on the metric distance between vertices. We show, through theoretical analysis and simulation, that for graphs formed according to the SPA model it is possible to infer the metric distance between vertices from the link structure of the graph. Precisely, the estimate is based on the number of common neighbours of a pair of vertices, a measure known as {\sl co-citation}. To be able to calculate this estimate, we derive a precise relation between the number of common neighbours and metric distance. We also analyze the distribution of {\sl edge lengths}, where the length of an edge is the metric distance between its end points. We show that this distribution has three different regimes, and that the tail of this distribution follows a power law

Globalisation and Labour Markets.

In this thesis how labour markets are affected by globalisation is examined. The thesis takes the form of three chapters. The first chapter looks at the state of trade unions in Europe and how they have been affected by globalisation; the second chapter is theoretical in nature and shows how the increasing size of trade blocs and lower transport costs can help to explain the decline in trade union density; and the third chapter looks at how the ability of firms to locate production in more than one country can affect wages and unemployment. The first chapter describes trends related to trade unions in Europe, before examining how globalisation can affect trade unions and how trade unions may respond. Since the 1980s there has been a general decline in trade union density and strike activity. At the same time there has been an increase in globalisation. Although common explanations have been put forward for the decline of trade union density across European countries, no cointegration has been found between trends in trade union density. Despite declines in trade union density, unions have continued to be successful in gaining wage premia for their members. The increase in globalisation has been associated with an increase in the elasticity of demand for labour. This affects the employment/wage trade o_ faced by trade unions. There is also some evidence that multinationals can use their cross-border bargaining power to reduce wages. Unions have reacted to globalisation by cooperating internationally, but any progress towards cross border collective bargaining has been at best slow. A simple model is presented in the chapter in order to anticipate the issues discussed in chapters two and three. The model suggests that unions will be more likely to cooperate internationally if they are substitutes in production and if the reservation wage is low. The second chapter looks at how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can affect wages and unemployment. While the increase in international firm mobility has been well documented, its effects on macroeconomic aggregates and in the labour market are still controversial. MNEs benefit from an international outside option during wage bargaining, leading to a decrease in average wages. However, a strategic incentive to hire extra workers in a foreign (home) plant in order to reduce wages in the home (foreign) plant has an indirect positive effect on wages due to spillovers resulting from an increased demand for labour. In a framework of frictional unemployment, permitting MNEs leads to a decrease in unemployment. Abstracting from transport and plant fixed costs, MNEs lead to higher wages. However, including transport and plant costs generally leads to lower wages, though the effects are small. The strategic hiring effect is important in mitigating the fall in wages. Finally, in the third chapter a model is presented which shows how increased product market competition due to an increase in the size of trade blocs and a lower cost of transporting goods internationally can lead to a decline in trade union density. Increasing international product market competition harms unionised workers more than workers who bargain wages individually. This is as union wages are a function of average revenue but individually bargained wages are a function of marginal revenue. Increasing competition narrows the gap between average and marginal revenue. This lowers the incentive to be a member of a trade union, which leads to a fall in trade union density. Globalisation can lead to falling union density despite a stable union wage premium and increasing union wages.International economic integration; International trade; Labor market;International economic integration -- Europe; International trade -- Europe; Labor market -- European Union countries; Globalization -- Europe;

Sports, Inc. Volume 9, Issue 2

The ILR Cornell Sports Business Society magazine is a semester publication titled Sports, Inc. This publication serves as a space for our membership to publish and feature in-depth research and well-thought out ideas to advance the world of sport. The magazine can be found in the Office of Student Services and is distributed to alumni who come visit us on campus. Issues are reproduced here with permission of the ILR Cornell Sports Business Society.https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/sportsinc/1012/thumbnail.jp