ALTERNATIVE TOBACCO PRODUCTS & DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AMONG YOUNG ADULTS

The association between cigarette use and depression has been documented in many studies. Fewer studies have examined other tobacco products such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and hookah that are used by young adults. This study examined whether increased frequency of use of these products was associated with depressive symptoms in a cohort of n=5,236 Texas college students followed from 2014 to 2017. A hierarchical model showed that increased frequency of single product use of cigarettes, refillable e-cigarettes and hookah was associated with depressive symptoms. Refillable and disposable e-cigarettes were examined separately and results did not provide evidence of a different association for each type of e-cigarette when cigarettes were not also used. Dual use of cigarettes with another product was also examined. Dual use was associated with higher depressive symptoms for most product combinations. However, infrequent dual use of disposable e-cigarettes and cigarettes may not be associated with depressive symptoms. Suggestions for further research are included

Individual Voice in Employment Relationships: A Comparison Under Different Forms of Workplace Representation

This article considers the role of individual employee voice in regulating the 'zone of acceptance' within the employment relationship, and examines the extent to which different models of collective voice inhibit or foster the operation of individual voice. It focuses especially on the role of representatives who deal with job-level grievances who operate within contrasted frameworks of collective voice. In one, representation is negotiated with the employer, and in the other, it is based on rights established in employment law. The former is commonly associated with shop stewards and unions, and the latter with employee delegates and works councils. It is argued that whereas in the negotiated model individual and collective voice are substitutes, in the rights-based one they are complements. The article also considers how this may alter under dual-channel representation based on both unions and councils, which is very common in European workplaces. Britain provides an example of the negotiated model, and France of both the rights-based and dual-channel models. These ideas are tested using data from the 2004 British and French workplace employment relations surveys, and confirmed using data from the 1998 surveys.Labor-management relations, industrial jurisprudence, individual and collective voice, works councils

Unions and Procedural Justice: An Alternative to the Common Rule

Can unions substitute a procedural justice role for their traditional reliance on establishing a¿common rule¿? The decline of ¿bureaucratic¿ models of employee management and the riseof performance pay and performance management conflicts with the common rule asmanagement seek to tie rewards more closely to individual and organisational performance.CEP studies of performance pay in the British public services illustrate the potential for aprocedural justice role to ensure that such pay systems are operated fairly, otherwise they riskdemotivating staff. Evidence is presented to show that employees regard unions as effectivevehicles for procedural justice. In this way, management can achieve better operation of theirincentive schemes, and employees may experience less unfairness and poisoned workrelations.performance-related pay, public services, procedural justice, management

The End of National Models in Employment Relations?

The erosion of a number of national systems of employment relations, and the evidence from large scale workplace surveys has brought attention to the considerable diversity of employment systems within major economies. This essay applies the theory of evolutionary games to explain the diffusion of different employment systems within national economies, and how they interact with established sectoral and national level institutions. This also helps to explain potential tipping points in their expansion and retreat. Evidence to support the argument is taken from the British and French workplace employment relations surveys and the European Working Conditions Survey.Labor-Management Relations, Labor Contracting

The Network Economy and Models of the Employment Contract: Psychological, Economic and Legal

The emergence of the so-called ¿network economy¿ and the development of project-basedwork pose a fundamental challenge to established methods of regulating the employmentrelationship. There appears to be an unsatisfied demand for its greater use, especially amongemployers, and it is argued that this may be blocked by the lack of suitable contractual forms,such as those that have underpinned the established open-ended employment relationship.Project-based work seeks to retain some of the open-ended flexibility of the standardemployment relationship in relation to its task content but not its duration. The paper arguesthe success of the standard employment relationship owes much to the articulation of itspsychological, economic/incentive, and legal aspects. As yet, this appears to be lacking formore transient forms of relationship.Network economy, Labor Contracting, Labor Law, Labor-Management Relations

In brief: pay inequalities and economic performance.

What is the relationship between the structure of earnings within firms and their business and employment performance? A major CEP project led by David Marsden has been using new European data to examine the role that firms' performance management systems play in the macroeconomy. In particular, the project has explored the ways in which these systems interact with institutional features of the labour market to produce different outcomes in different regional and industrial contexts.

Teachers Before the Threshold

During the summer of 2000, the government will introduce a new system of pay and performance management for teachers. The Centre for Economic Performance is conducting a 'before-and-after' panel study of teachers and schools to ascertain its effects on motivation and performance. This paper reports preliminary findings from the first wave of the survey, before the introduction of the new system. The likely effects of the new system, on the basis of these results, are examined from the point of view of motivation and work behaviour, and potential recruitment. The danger of widespread de-motivation is a serious one, and it is essential that the new scheme be seen by teachers to operate fairly and to provide the necessary support to teachers wishing to pass the 'Threshold'. A key role is envisaged for the teachers' unions in building teachers' confidence that the scheme will be operated fairly, and this, it is argued, fits with the government's views on the benefits of labour-management partnership.School teachers, performance related pay, work motivation, public sector

The Paradox of Performance Related Pay Systems: 'Why Do We Keep Adopting Them in the Face of Evidence that they Fail to Motivate?'

This paper considers one of the paradoxes of incentive pay used in Britain's public services, namely that despite much evidence that it does not motivate employees, it continues to be widely used. It is argued that behind this evidence, there are significant examples in which its use has been associated with improved performance. A good part of this is to be explained by the way performance pay links pay and appraisal, and the pressure this puts on line managers to set clearer goals for their staff. There is also some evidence that the goal setting is the outcome of a form of integrative, or positive sum, negotiation between individual employees and their managers, and that it is not just 'top down'.pay for performance, public sector pay

The ‘network economy’ and models of the employment contract.

The development of the ‘network economy’ and project-based work challenge established methods of regulating employment relationships. There appears to be an unsatisfied demand for its greater use, especially among employers, and this may be blocked by the lack of suitable contractual forms.. Project-based work seeks to retain some of the open-ended flexibility of the standard employment relationship in relation to its task content but not its duration. The paper argues the success of the standard employment relationship stems from articulation of its psychological, economic/incentive, and legal aspects. As yet, this appears to be lacking for more transient forms of relationship.

The Growth of Extended 'Entry Tournaments' and the Decline of Institutionalised Occupational Labour Markets in Britain

In recent years, British labour markets have been characterised by a decline of institutional regulation of entry routes into many occupations and internal labour markets. This paper examines this change by comparing occupational labour markets for selected occupations in which institutional regulation has remained largely intact with those in which entry has become more fluid. It argues that in the latter case, structured entry paths, which were characterised by competition at the ports of entry, have given way to extended entry tournaments in which competition is spread over a much longer time period. Using data from the New Earnings Survey panel for 1975-2001, it relates the comparatively greater growth in earnings inequality in these occupations to the emergence of extended entry tournaments. As pay at the top has risen, greater competition for entry at the bottom has held down pay and depressed conditions. It argues that many of the aspirant members of these occupations compete for entry for too long, and then become trapped as it is too late to change occupation.Wage Level and Structure, Wage Differentials by Skill, Training, Professional Labor Markets and Occupations