The Emerging Anglo-American Model: Convergence in Industrial Relations Institutions?

The Thatcher and Reagan administrations led a shift towards more market oriented regulation of economies in the Anglo-American countries, including efforts to reduce the power of organized labor. In this paper, we examine the development of employment and labor law in six Anglo-American countries (the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) from the Thatcher/Reagan era to the present. At the outset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, the employment and labor law systems in these countries could be divided into three pairings: the Wagner Act model based industrial relations systems of the United States and Canada; the voluntarist system of collective bargaining and strong unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland; and the highly centralized, legalistic Award systems of Australia and New Zealand. Indeed, such a historical perspective contradicts the idea that there has been a longstanding Anglo-American model of liberal market economic ordering as has sometimes been suggested, e.g. in the varieties of capitalism literature. However, looking at the current state of the employment relations systems in these six countries, we argue that there has been growing convergence in two major areas. There has been a convergence in the area of labour rights toward private ordering of employment relations and away from the idea of work and employment being a matter subject to public ordering. By private ordering, we mean the idea that work and employment terms and conditions are primarily determined at the level of the individual organization, whether through collective bargaining between unions and employers at the organizational level, through individual negotiations, or through unilateral employer establishment of the terms and conditions of employment. The shift away from public ordering of work and employment is most dramatic in the cases of Australia and New Zealand, where the publicly established system of centralized Awards has given way to organizational level ordering of employment relations through workplace or individual level agreements. In the United Kingdom, the shift to greater private ordering is most evident in the breakdown of multi-employer collective bargaining, the weakening of industry wide standards enforced by strong unions, and the growth of nonunion representation at the enterprise level. By contrast, the much lesser degree of change in the labour rights area in North America reflects the historical situation that the Wagner Act model was from the outset a model built around the idea of private ordering. When we turn to the area of employment rights, we also see a convergence across the six Anglo-American countries toward a model in which the role of employment law is to establish a basket of minimum standards that are built into the employment relationship, which can then be improved upon by the parties. Within these general trends, we do see some variation in the degree of convergence on these models of labour and employment rights regulation across the Anglo-American countries. The strongest degree of similarity in adoption of the private ordering in labour rights and the minimum standards basket in employment rights is found in four of the countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and, with recent legislative changes, Australia. Each of these countries has adopted labour laws that favour organizational level economic ordering, but with reasonably substantial protections of trade union organizing and bargaining rights, and a set of minimum employment standards that includes similar sets of minimum wage, basic leave entitlements and unfair dismissal protections. The first outlier in this study is Ireland. The Irish employment relations system stands out as the only one that has continued to have a significant degree of central coordination and public ordering of employment relations. Although there is substantial coordination at the central level, at the organizational level, the Irish system resembles the other Anglo-American countries much more closely, suggesting that it has the potential to evolve in a similar direction. The other outlier is the United States. Structurally its system is similar to the other Anglo-American countries in emphasizing private ordering in labour law and the role of employment law as being to establish a minimum basket of basic standards. However, where the United States diverges from the other countries is that its system has involved a general favouring of the interests of employers over those of employees and organized labour in the implementation of the model

Aligning Employees Through \u3ci\u3eLine of Sight\u3c/i\u3e

Aligning employees with the firm’s larger strategic goals is critical if organizations hope to manage their human capital effectively and ultimately attain strategic success. An important component of attaining and sustaining this alignment is whether employees have “line of sight” to the organization’s strategic objectives. We illustrate how the translation of strategic goals into tangible results requires that employees not only understand the organization’s strategy, they must accurately understand what actions are aligned with realizing that strategy. Using recent empirical evidence, theoretical insights, and tangible examples of exemplary firm practices, we provide thought-leaders with a comprehensive view of LOS, how it is created, how it can be enhanced or stifled, and how it can be effectively managed. We integrate LOS with current thinking on employee alignment to help managers more effectively benefit from understanding human capital potential

Jurisdictional Disputes

To understand better the tremendous scope of this labyrinthical situation, the following hypothetical, but not usual case is posed: The employees of A are members of B union. They are satisfied with their hours, working conditions, and wages and there is no allegation of any unfair labor practices upon the part of A. C, a rival union, enters the field, contending that the employees should affiliate with it, and, in order to prosecute its point, either pickets A or instigates a boycott. If A\u27s employees were to accede to C\u27s demands, it is highly probable that B would take resort to the same tactics previously employed by C. Thus A is caught in a vicious vise, from the jaws of which he must extricate himself if his business is to survive on a profitable basis. Likewise, his employees are genuinely interested in an amicable agreement, for otherwise their means of livelihood is in jeopardy. The public, too, is injured, as indeed it is whenever industrial strife ensues, and hence must demand a discontinuance of the destructive quarrel. But in most instances there appears no available relief and in all cases it is exceedingly difficult and slow of attainment

Participative Learning Experiences in the Professional Studies Classroom

Professional studies courses often focus on mastering a common body of knowledge but ignore student interaction and the development of critical thinking and communication skills. In a cost accounting course at Connecticut\u27s Sacred Heart University offered in fall 1993, various group and individual activities were implemented to incorporate these skills into the course. The requirements of the course included two quizzes, a computer project, class participation and activities, and a final examination. The approach to the course was based on pedagogical recommendations developed by the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) in 1989, which stressed the importance of solving unstructured problems requiring the use of a variety of information sources, learning by doing, incorporating technology into the learning process, group work, and teaching methods that build written and oral communication skills. Activities used in the course included extracurricular events with community accountants groups, research on current issues likely to affect the current working environment, and role playing presentations related to flexible budgeting. Numerous excerpts from the instructor\u27s journal describing the implementation of these activities are included

A Reconciliation of Priorities Under Executory Contracts for the Sale of Land

Among the many complexities of modem business and financial life none is fraught with more intricacies than the utilization of credit. Economic exigencies have dictated that many must purchase without the immediate ability to pay. The seller, likewise, has evidenced an eagerness to sell and transfer the possession of his property upon the receipt of a promise that payment will be subsequently made at a specified date. Thus commerce thrives and the needs of the community are satisfied. It is, however, necessary that the seller receive some further assurance, some more reliable protection than the mere promise of the buyer to pay, and it has been as the result of such a need that the various types of security devices have been conceived and have thrived. Our present concern is with but one of these, namely the executory contract to buy and sell land. The scope of the treatment herein will be limited to a narrow, but important phase of the general problem—the rights of the vendee and those taking under him as against a creditor of the vendor who, subsequent to the initial transaction, obtains a judgment lien upon all of the debtor\u27s property

A Study in the Definition of the Situation: Adult-Child Sexual Relationships

Today sexual relationships between adults and children are being discussed and examined by both the general population and academia. The media features articles and programs on the topic. Personal experience books from the child\u27s perspective are being published regularly. There is a growing amount of literature written by academics. Treatment programs are springing up around the country. And legislation prohibiting these relationships is being written or revised

Haemophilia

Although the nature of haemophilia has been understood for thousands of years, knowledge of its molecular genetics is recent. These X-linked bleeding disorders have diverse underlying DNA defects and, in 1992, DNA inversion within the X chromosome was found to explain half of the most serious cases of haemophilia A. The life-span and quality of-life for patients with haemophilia had improved steadily throughout the early 1980s but the principal cause of death remained intracranial haemorrhage until the epidemic of HIV infection due to contaminated factor concentrates. Infection with hepatitis C virus is almost universal for patients treated with clotting factors before 1985. No curative treatment is available for hepatitis C at present. Knowledge of the transmission of viruses in concentrates has led to important developments in processing techniques to eliminate them. Recombinant technology has produced factor VIII and, more recently, factor IX concentrate which is likely to be very safe. Development of inhibitors to factor concentrates (especially factor VIII) remains one of the most serious complications of haemophilia. The variety of treatments available testifies to the lack of a single universally efficacious one. The use of prophylactic treatment has been conclusively demonstrated to result in a preservation of joint function in severely affected patients who might otherwise develop significant joint problems. The many facets of the care of patients with severe haemophilia, ranging from dental care to genetic counselling, can be advantageously co-ordinated in a haemophilia comprehensive care centre

The spin vector of Venus determined from Magellan data

A control network of the north polar region of Venus has been established by selecting and measuring control points on full-resolution radar strips. The measurements were incorporated into a least-squares adjustment program that improved initial estimates of the coordinates of the control points, pole direction, and rotation rate of Venus. The current dataset contains 4206 measurements of 606 points on 619 radar strips. The accuracy of the determination is driven by spacecraft ephemeris errors. An accurate estimate of the rotation period of Venus was obtained by applying an ephemeris improvement technique. The second cycle closure orbits improved ephemeris solutions for 40 orbits (376-384, 520-528, 588-592, 658-668, 1002-1010, 1408-1412, 1746-1764, and 2166-2170) are included and fixed in the geodetic control computations, thus trying the network to the J2000 coordinate system

Depression, School Performance, and the Veridicality of Perceived Grades and Causal Attributions

An external criterion was assessed to test whether depressives have distorted perceptions of covariation information and whether their attributions are consistent with this information. Students’ actual and self-perceived grades, depression status, and attributions for failures were assessed. Furthermore, partici pants estimated average grades. Generally, self-perceived own past grades were inflated. Depressed students and those with low grades distorted their own grades (but not the average grade) more to their favor than individuals low in depression and those with high grades. Depression went along with lower actual grades and with internal, stable, and global failure attributions. Mood differences in attributions were not due to differences in previous grades. Depressed individuals drew (unrealistically) more depressogenic causal inferences when they perceived average grades to be low than when average grades were perceived to be high. However, they (realistically) attributed failure more in a depressogenic fashion than did nondepressives when their own grade history was low