Employment, unemployment and informality in Zimbabwe: Concepts and data for coherent policy-making

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ILO_EmploymentUnemploymentandInformalityinZimbabwe.pdf: 1098 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Decent work and informal employment: A survey of workers in Glen View, Harare

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ILO_SurveyofWorkersinGlenViewHarare.pdf: 360 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

A Focused Evaluation of Sales Employees\u27 Ethics Training and Its Effect on the Diffusion of Ethics in a Financial Organization

Ethical scandals have continued to batter corporate America into the twenty-first century. Companies such as Enron and MCI WorldCom became household names overnight because of ethical issues that shuttered the organizations’ operations and stunned shareholders. Training has served as a primary mechanism for companies to impart ethical values in employees and leadership teams. However, despite the ongoing focus and resources dedicated to education and associate development in this area, historically there appears to be no diffusion of ethical standards within organizations. There is a lack of consensus in current research regarding the effectiveness of organizational ethics training and its ability to diffuse ethical standards to employees to influence their behaviors. This mixed-methods study utilized Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory as a framework to investigate how ethics training impacts the diffusion of ethical standards throughout a financial organization and its frontline sales force. It examined the theory’s five innovation characteristics of relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, observability, and complexity. The study also incorporated the work of Moore and Benbasat, utilizing their validated diffusion survey instrument as a primary avenue for data collection and examining three additional diffusion attributes that accompanied their research—image, result demonstrability, and voluntariness. This paper serves as a new starting point for diffusion studies because the current body of research is silent in how diffusion of innovations theory informs the effectiveness of ethics training. It provides recommendations for future research in the fields of diffusion and human resources and workforce development education. It also offers a unique perspective and opportunity to identify a root cause of America’s ethic scandal epidemic

How Much is a Box? The Hidden Cost of Adding an Open-ended Probe to an Online Survey

Probing questions, essentially open-ended comment boxes that are attached to a traditional closed-ended question, are increasingly used in online surveys. They give respondents an opportunity to share information that goes beyond what can be captured through standardized response categories. However, even when probes are non-mandatory, they can add to perceived response burden and incur a cost in the form of lower respondent cooperation. This paper seeks to measure this cost and reports on a survey experiment that was integrated into a short questionnaire on a German salary comparison site (N = 22,306). Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a control without a probing question; a probe that was embedded directly into the closed-ended question; and a probe displayed on a subsequent page. For every meaningful comment gathered, the embedded design resulted in 0.1 break-offs and roughly 3.7 item missings for the closed-ended question. The paging design led to 0.2 additional break-offs for every open-ended answer it collected. Against expectations, smartphone users were more likely to provide meaningful (albeit shorter) open-ended answers than those using a PC or laptop. However, smartphone use also amplified the adverse effects of the probe on break-offs and item non-response to the closed-ended question. Despite documenting their hidden cost, this paper argues that the value of the additional information gathered by probes can make them worthwhile. In conclusion, it endorses the selective use of probes as a tool to better understand survey respondents

Poverty, employment and inequality in the SDGs: Heterodox discourse, orthodox policies?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put much emphasis on the employment and inequality, a noteworthy shift from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their focus on poverty eradication. To achieve ‘Sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth’, SDG Goal 8 contains targets on productivity-enhancing policies, employment and decent work, and makes reference to three out of the four fundamental labour rights. While these are necessary ingredients for a sustained increase in living standards and important elements of heterodox accounts of development, they are not sufficient conditions to create equitable growth. Drawing on examples from Asia, the paper makes this argument by addressing three orthodox conjectures: that workers benefit from productivity growth through higher wages; that factor shares in national income are roughly constant; and that policy interventions such as minimum wages are bound to fail. The paper concludes with two policy implications: (1) Countries need to adopt fiscal, wage and social protection policies that reduce inequalities of outcome and achieve faster income growth for the poorest – elements which can be found in Goal 10. (2) Effective labour markets governance needs to include the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, the only fundamental labour right not explicitly mentioned in the SDGs

Association Among Serum Perfluoroalkyl Chemicals, Glucose Homeostasis, and Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents and Adults

OBJECTIVE - Perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) have been used worldwide in a variety of consumer products. The effect of PFCs on glucose homeostasis is not known. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - We examined 474 adolescents and 969 adults with reliable serum measures of metabolic syndrome profile from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2000 and 2003-2004. RESULTS - In adolescents, increased serum perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) concentrations were associated with hyperglycemia (odds ratio [OR] 3.16 [95% Cl 1.39-7.16], P < 0.05). Increased serum PFNA concentrations also have favorable associations with serum HDL cholesterol (0.67 [0.45-0.99], P < 0.05). Overall, increased serum PFNA concentrations were inversely correlated with the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (0.37 [0.21-0.64], P < 0.005). In adults, increased serum perfluorooctanoic acid concentrations were significantly associated with increased beta-cell function (beta coefficient 0.07 +/- 0.03, P < 0. 05 ). Increased serum perfluorooctane sulfate (PFOS) concentrations were associated with increased blood insulin (0.14 +/- 0.05, P < 0.01), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (0.14 0.05, P < 0.01), and beta-cell function (0.15 +/- 0.05, P < 0.01). Serum PFOS concentrations were also unfavorably correlated with serum HDL cholesterol (OR 1.61 [95% Cl 1.15-2.26], P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS - Serum PFCs were associated with glucose homeostasis and indicators of metabolic syndrome. Further clinical and animal studies are warranted to clarify putative causal relationships

Stochastic Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Modeling for Assessing the Systemic Health Risk of Perfluorooctanoate (PFOA)

A phase 1 dose-escalation trial assessed the chemotherapeutic potential of ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO). Forty-nine primarily solid-tumor cancer patients who failed standard therapy received weekly APFO doses (50mg-1200mg) for six-weeks. Clinical chemistries and plasma PFOA (anionic APFO) were measured pre-dose and weekly thereafter. Several clinical measures including total cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins (HDL), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), and free thyroxine (fT4), relative to PFOA concentrations, were examined by: standard statistical analyses using general estimating equations (GEE) and a probabilistic analysis using probability distribution functions (pdf) at various PFOA concentrations; and a two-compartment pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model to directly estimate mean changes. Based on the GEE, the average rates of change in total cholesterol and fT4 associated with increasing PFOA were approximately -1.2x10−3mmol/L/μM and 2.8x10−3pmol/L/μM, respectively. The PK/PD model predicted more closely the trends observed in the data as well as the pdfs of biomarkers. A decline in total cholesterol was observed, with a clear transition in shape and range of the pdfs, manifested by the maximum value of the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, that occurred at plasma PFOA between 420 and 565 μM (175,000–230,000 ng/mL). HDL was unchanged. An increase in fT4 was observed at a higher PFOA transition point, albeit TSH was unchanged. Our findings are consistent with some animal models and may motivate re-examination of the epidemiological studies to PFOA at levels several orders of magnitude lower than this study. These observational studies have reported contrary associations, but currently understood biology does not support the existence of such conflicting effects

Analysis of Common and Specific Mechanisms of Liver Function Affected by Nitrotoluene Compounds

BACKGROUND: Nitrotoluenes are widely used chemical manufacturing and munitions applications. This group of chemicals has been shown to cause a range of effects from anemia and hypercholesterolemia to testicular atrophy. We have examined the molecular and functional effects of five different, but structurally related, nitrotoluenes on using an integrative systems biology approach to gain insight into common and disparate mechanisms underlying effects caused by these chemicals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sprague-Dawley female rats were exposed via gavage to one of five concentrations of one of five nitrotoluenes [2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene (2ADNT) 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoulene (4ADNT), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4DNT) and 2,6-dinitrotoluene (2,6DNT)] with necropsy and tissue collection at 24 or 48 h. Gene expression profile results correlated well with clinical data and liver histopathology that lead to the concept that hematotoxicity was followed by hepatotoxicity. Overall, 2,4DNT, 2,6DNT and TNT had stronger effects than 2ADNT and 4ADNT. Common functional terms, gene expression patterns, pathways and networks were regulated across all nitrotoluenes. These pathways included NRF2-mediated oxidative stress response, aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling, LPS/IL-1 mediated inhibition of RXR function, xenobiotic metabolism signaling and metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450. One biological process common to all compounds, lipid metabolism, was found to be impacted both at the transcriptional and lipid production level. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A systems biology strategy was used to identify biochemical pathways affected by five nitroaromatic compounds and to integrate data that tie biochemical alterations to pathological changes. An integrative graphical network model was constructed by combining genomic, gene pathway, lipidomic, and physiological endpoint results to better understand mechanisms of liver toxicity and physiological endpoints affected by these compounds