Your search

The article reviews the book, "Employment Equity and Affirmative Action: An International Comparison," by Harish C. Jain, Peter J. Sloane and Frank M. Horwitz.

The research presented here contributes to the current debate on the effects of perceived self-efficacy (PSE). The study, undertaken with 157 schoolteachers who had just started their first teaching position, examined the moderating role of PSE on the effects of mismatches between expectations and actual work conditions on newcomer integration behaviour. Based on the theoretical model of multiple socialization, the results suggest that: 1) the degree of exchanges that subjects establish between different areas of their life influences PSE efficiency; 2) PSE effects can be positive or negative depending on the nature of the disturbances to which PSE is applied.

The article reviews the book, "The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of Modern Canada 1920 to 1950," by Cynthia Comacchio.

Employment equity became a significant public policy issue in Canada following the 1984 publication of Equality in Employment: A Royal Commission Report² under the direction of Commissioner Rosalie Abella. Abella consulted widely with individual advocates and representatives of social movements to capture the growing concern for equality and equity issues that had crystallized with the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The result was a unique, Canadian approach to equity and it guided the development of a public policy agenda in very significant ways. However, the significance was not only in the establishment of a political culture friendly to an ideology of inclusiveness in the country’s workplaces; it also laid the ground for an acceptance of, and concessions to, certain aspects of political backlash. --Introduction

The article reviews the book, "Capital and Collusion: The Political Logic of Global Economic Development," by Hilton L. Root.

This study assesses psychological contract using a feature-oriented approach which measures perceptions about employer and employee obligations along the dimensions of duration, tangibility, scope, stability/flexibility, contract level and exchange symmetry. Questionnaires were administered to 170 workers (23 males, 147 females) employed at a rest home in Northern Italy. The results confirm the hypothesized relation between the employee's perceptions of employer obligations and the organizational role component of organizational life (in terms of low role ambiguity and high development expectations). Similarly, the hypothesized relation between the employee's perceived obligations to the employer and the affective and motivational area is supported (in terms of affective commitment and perceived organizational justice). The results also show the importance of assessing the employee's perceptions both of employer obligations and of her/his own obligations to the employer, considering the differentiated influence that each of them has on organizational life.

The article reviews the book, "Moving Up in the New Economy: Career Ladders for U.S. Workers," by Joan Fitzgerald.

The article reviews the book, "Les professions face aux enjeux de la féminisation," by Nathalie Lapeyre.

Cette recherche qualitative fait ressortir l’existence de modèles de gestion à « haute performance » dans la fonction publique québécoise. Les résultats suggèrent l’existence de deux catégories de pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines (RH) mobilisatrices qui agissent sur l’engagement des salariés à travers des mécanismes distincts : 1) les pratiques liées au partage d’information et à la participation des salariés à la gestion et 2) les autres pratiques de RH (les nouvelles formes d’organisation du travail, la gestion axée sur les résultats et la formation liée à l’emploi) qui influencent les perceptions de justice organisationnelle et de support organisationnel. Les résultats suggèrent également un lien entre les performances économiques et sociales et la « double cohérence » des pratiques RH, à savoir la cohérence interne et la cohérence symbolique.

Dans un contexte d’intégration économique, quel est l’impact d’un cadre réglementaire distinctif en matière d’emploi sur le développement économique ? L’article montre dans un premier temps le caractère fondamentalement distinct du cadre réglementaire québécois relativement au cadre américain. De là, il analyse cette question à partir d’entrevues réalisées auprès de dirigeants d’entreprises ayant des lieux de production dans ces deux espaces économiques. Cette démarche permet d’amorcer une réflexion théorique sur le particularisme institutionnel au sein d’un ensemble économique régional intégré. L’étude conclut qu’il est possible de préserver les spécificités du cadre réglementaire québécois dans la mesure où celui-ci s’inscrit dans une stratégie de développement de l’industrie manufacturière dans les secteurs à haute valeur ajoutée, lesquels exigent une main-d’oeuvre qualifiée. Il importe donc de soutenir la croissance des secteurs susceptibles de tirer avantage d’un tel contexte, notamment par l’appui à la recherche et au développement.

The article reviews the book, "Beyond Cannery Row: Sicilian Women, Immigration and Community in Monterey, California 1915-1999," by Carol Lynn McKibben.

The article reviews the book, "Precarious Work, Women, and the New Economy: The Challenge to Legal Norms," edited by Judy Fudge and Rosemary Owens.

Cet article présente les résultats d’une recherche sur l’autonomie d’équipes de travail d’opérateurs cuvistes de deux alumineries utilisant une technologie similaire, dont l’une est syndiquée et l’autre non syndiquée. L’hypothèse voulant que la présence syndicale favorise l’autonomie des équipes de travail est infirmée par les résultats de notre étude. La discussion des résultats met en évidence les facteurs qui ont contribué à une plus grande autonomie des équipes de travail dans l’établissement non syndiqué et conduit à une réévaluation de l’effet de la présence syndicale sur le travail en équipe.

Cet article présente les résultats d’une recherche sur l’autonomie d’équipes de travail d’opérateurs cuvistes de deux alumineries utilisant une technologie similaire, dont l’une est syndiquée et l’autre non syndiquée. L’hypothèse voulant que la présence syndicale favorise l’autonomie des équipes de travail est infirmée par les résultats de notre étude. La discussion des résultats met en évidence les facteurs qui ont contribué à une plus grande autonomie des équipes de travail dans l’établissement non syndiqué et conduit à une réévaluation de l’effet de la présence syndicale sur le travail en équipe.

CCUPE On Strike offers a profile of the 1502 CUPE strikes since the union's inception in 1963 until 2004. In addition to breakdowns by province and industry, it considers strike incidence over time, duration, size of strikes, contract status, results, and the pattern of lockouts and rotating strikes. Like the overall Canadian strike profile, a majority of strikes are in small workplaces and are settled relatively quickly. Not surprisingly, CUPE strikes are clustered in Public Administration, and Health Care and Social Assistance. This demographic might help to explain the fact that CUPE has been involved in fewer wildcats, lockouts and strikes for first contracts than other unions. Although the overall trend for Canada since the 1990s has been a decrease in strikes, a modest shift in the last five years is evident in the data. For CUPE, this means more workers on strike, longer strikes, and more lockouts, all of which suggest an escalation in employer aggression. The Canadian data which highlight increasing public sector militancy and the feminization of that militancy suggest that CUPE will be a key player in the map of labour militancy in the future. This profile of the strike activities of CUPE, the largest union in Canada, makes visible the experience of strikes from the point of view of workers and their unions. Not only does it contribute to a labour militancy perspective on the quantitative data on work stoppages from Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), it also demonstrates the potential of the data to enrich our understanding of worker militancies.

Using the micro-data from Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) on the 23,944 stoppages in Canada between 1960 and 2004, this article introduces a labour militancy perspective on work stoppages, that is, from the point of view of workers. It explores patterns of militancy with a focus on strike duration, strike size and strikes for first contracts, and supports re-interpretations which help make visible the significance of such stoppages for workers, unions and communities. A labour militancy frame presents an alternative to the employer perspective on time lost, the government concern to measure the economic impact of stoppages, and the scholarly emphasis on strike determinants. As part of re-examining the HRSDC work stoppage data from a labour militancy perspective, the paper considers the source of these data. It juxtaposes the statistical data with interviews with the provincial correspondents who collect the information for HRSDC. Examining the data in this light underscores the political nature of data collection (what is seen to be germane and not), data presentation (what is made visible and what is not), and data sources (whose voices are heard).

The article reviews the book, "The Transformation of British Life, 1950-2000," by Andrew Rosen.

The article focuses on farm labor in Ontario. It is said that migrant farm workers are widely employed in Niagara because they return better profit. However, it is claimed that the use of workers from Mexico and the Caribbean serves to depress wages and complicates union formation. It is also noted that these workers are denied with the rights enjoyed by workers with landed-immigrant status.

Book review of: "Capitalism Rebooted: Work, Welfare and the New Economy" by Dave Broad & Wayne Antony (eds.)