Journal Article

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of R&D investment at the level of the firm. Design/methodology/approach- A balanced panel of 215 Italian manufacturing firms over the 1995‐2000 period has been used to test the technology‐push, the demand‐pull and the endogenous skill‐bias hypotheses. Econometrically, both the GMM‐SYS estimator and the Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (LSDVC) estimator (a recently proposed panel data technique particularly suitable for small samples) have been used. Findings- Results support the well‐established technology‐push and demand‐pull hypotheses and, furthermore, supply evidence for the role of skill endowment in increasing a firm's R&D investments. Research limitations/implications- A limitation of the study concerns the measure of skills which is here, as in previous economic literature, simply the ratio between productive (blue‐collar) and non‐productive (white‐collar) workers. Another limitation of this contribution concerns its limited generalisability: data come from relatively large Italian manufacturing firms, i.e. the service sector and SMEs are not considered. Practical implications- Consistently with the related managerial and economic literature, the basic result is that current skill endowment may significantly and positively influence a firm's current R&D decision; therefore, adequate education and training policies may indirectly induce an increase in corporate R&D investment. In terms of managerial implications, this means that HRM may be seen as an indirect strategy for improving a firm's R&D effort and ultimately for improving its performance through innovation. Originality/value- While there is a well‐established literature investigating the so‐called Skill Biased Technological Change, few microeconomic empirical studies have been devoted to test the reverse relationship. The paper aims to fill this gap, testing whether higher skills may induce higher R&D expenditures.

The changes this book discusses, particularly the shift from a specific legal framework for employment relations to a one shaped by common law and the revival of the master servant contract, has enabled me to see that institutional habitus associated with the practice of common law is part of the answer. [...]the different contributions aim to describe and reflect on the dynamics and drivers of workplace change over the stated time period of 1976 to 2016. [...]as the chapters from the first two sub-sections illustrate, the changed nature of employment relations that the Employment Contracts Act put in place also facilitated an ideological onslaught that led to the loss of the social movement influenced 'labour' studies programmes systematically, a loss that has concluded poignantly for me personally by the last Labour studies programme at the University of Waikato being re-branded into a sociology minor called Work, Employment and Society in 2018. Both chapters also illustrate how the policy emphasis on worker involvement has been eroded through changes to health and safety and employment relations legislation and lower managerial commitment to high-trust workplace arrangements The last theme, 'legal transformation', revisited the subject material of the previous first and third themes, providing first a historical account of change (Anderson), and secondly, two specific areas of change dispute resolution (Robson) and ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) (Duncan).

The literature in HRM extensively discussed the developments in the career field between the traditional model of organizational career model of nomadic career, supposed to respond to the new psychological contract between workers organizations of the XXI century. Now, it would be for HR managers to attract talent they know that the transition in the organization will be limited in time. The unprecedented development of forms of work in the project, halfway between the employment and the status of independent, seems to agree with this "modern" design career. However, a closer examination of current developments in the labor market shows that the careers of workers to the project are not only the result of individual initiatives of workers offering their talents on the market. They often go through intermediary structures, offering various security arrangements, become essential partners for the management of career paths.  From a conceptual work on the concept of intermediary in the labor market and on the basis of multiple contrasting case studies on the Belgian labor market, our article shows the diversity of forms taken this work and intermediation identifies two "ideal types" reflecting opposing views of securing professional transitions: the first considers workers to the project as "quasi-employees"; the second as "quasi-independent". We show then how this triangular game led to a questioning of career management as an attribute sovereign of the HR function. [googletranslate_en]

Millennials now represent the majority generation and the majority workforce in the U.S. Unlike older generations, millennials claim to desire a more seamless overlap between work and personal lives. This study acknowledges a change in context from work-family balance to work-life overlap, provides evidence that the established relationship between core self-evaluation and job satisfaction holds for millennial workers, and contributes two new constructs and scales to measure technology enabled work-to-life and life-to-work overlap for millennial workers. Results show that technology enabled work-to-life overlap is positively related to job satisfaction and strengthens the CSE-job satisfaction relationship.

Digitalisation, automation and technological change have brought about shifts in the occupational structure, the place and the timing of work, and career patterns, putting a further strain on the standard employment relationship. In the recent research on digitalisation, scant attention has however been paid to the gender impact of these changes. This article addresses this gap by developing a gender perspective on digitalisation, considering how these developments interact with existing social inequalities and gender segregation patterns in the labour market. We identify two broad areas in which digitalisation has thus far had a pronounced effect on employment: the structure of employment (including occupational change and the task content of jobs) and forms of work (including employment relationships and work organisation). We find that, despite the profound changes in the labour market, traditional gender inequalities continue to reassert themselves on many dimensions. With standard employment declining in significance, the policy challenge is to include new forms of work in effective labour protection frameworks that promote equal access of women and men to quality jobs and their equal treatment at work.

The advent of autonomous vehicles is forecast to bring enormous changes to the workplace as positions primarily involving driving become progressively redundant. Little is known about public awareness of these impending changes and the potential impacts on society and individuals. This study involved a national survey of Australians and interviews with key stakeholders across multiple countries to identify major potential issues associated with vehicle automation, including in and around the workplace. Most survey respondents had concerns relating to job losses in driving occupations, while almost half anticipated increased employment in technology-related areas. Three primary themes were evident in the data from the stakeholder interviews: (1) the inevitability of the universal use of AVs and hence the immediate need for labour market planning, (2) associated potential effects on occupations that are not primarily structured around driving, and (3) the possibility of increased worker safety and enhanced commuting opportunities.

Noting the tendency of students of work and organizational psychology to choose internships among a smaller number of hosting organizations paired with satisfaction with completed internship expressed by the sentence 'It was great, they were all young', we performed qualitative content analysis of students' reflections on age in the context of internship attractiveness. The materials for the analysis were 1) Fifty internship reports and 2) Discussions with students. There was no explicit ageism in students' reports. Students were equally satisfied with mentors from more and less popular organizations. Four categories related to attractiveness of internship hosting organizations emerged: organizational culture, organizational climate, working conditions and mentors' work. As in the case of more attractive organizations they point to 'younger' organizations, as a factor of their attractiveness, they could be discussed as 'clear manifestations of ageism', but also they could be regarded as 'younger generation centeredness', and partly a form of 'covert ageism'. Reflections could also be interpreted as a consequence of students' professional insecurity, need for peer support, ease of communicating with peers and those of similar age. Psychological distance from older generations of colleagues and mentors at work can both be the source of covert and overt ageism. In order to enable students to fully utilize the benefits of internship for their professional development, it is important to work on recognizing and preventing ageism and overcoming generational distances.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of e-government for horizontal/social accountability (to citizens) by looking into its shifting location. Its main purpose is to show how the introduction of information and communication technology in the public sector changes how public sector work is organised, shifting the traditional sources of accountability and to discuss the implications of those changes. Design/methodology/approach - The study comes from desk-based research that brings together the literature on electronic government and accountability studies and situates them in the context of a bureaucratic public sector. Findings - It shows that e-government entails digitalization of public sector work by restructuring work, re-organising public information and knowledge and re-orientating officials-citizens relation. It argues that in the e-government era accountability is inscribed in the technology and its embodied standards; is a horizontal technological relation that renders officials accountable to the handling of digital interfaces; and renders citizens co- producers of digital information responsible for bringing the public to account. The paper shows that these changes do not necessarily bring better or worse accountability results but change the sources of accountability bringing shifts in its locations, thereby rendering it more precarious. The paper ends by discussing the implications of digital accountability for good public administration. Originality/value - With the unprecedented level of attention currently being paid to "digital government" at the moment, this is a timely paper that seeks to address the accountability implications of these shifts. The study offers a practice-based, relational definition of accountability and a Weberian account of bureaucratic government, followed by an exploration of ways in which this is being challenged or replaced with a new informatisation enabled/supported by new "technologies of accountability".

This paper reviews recent concerns and discussions about technological unemployment focusing on the trope "the robots are coming" and beginning with reference to the World Summit (2015) devoted to the issue. There is consensus that robots and big data systems will disrupt labor markets, kill jobs and cause social inequalities. The paper examines Klaus Schwab's concept of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" - a concept that underlies the recent Davos meeting to inquire about the role of education in an age of automated cognition.