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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis presents a new approach to the theory of the labor-managed firm, based on the case of the Yugoslavian labor-managed economy. Instead of income per worker maximization, we suggest that a labor-managed firm in a certain environment and given institutional setting maximizes revenue, while under uncertainty another approach is taken, namely that of social welfare maximization. / Inefficient allocation may result in a labor-managed firm whose workers have no transferable property rights. We explore creation of an internal shares market as the means to acquire efficiency. Internal market for shares is also seen as a possible form of transition of the labor-managed firm, given the path of transformation of the institutional setting in former Yugoslavia, through a kind of industrial democracy with private (transferable) property rights.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the way in which employees in two departments of a Greek industrial company resolved conflict situations encountered in the context of their department. The premises are that (a) the positive effects of conflict for the organization are related to the way in which it is resolved; (b) the investigation of the phenomenon of conflict resolution necessitates the examination of employees' conflict handling behaviour during a conflict episode, as well as of their representation of the particular episode; (c) the bureaucratic culture of the organization and the wider social culture determine the conditions within which employees represent and deal with conflict situations. The research used a single case design to develop new ways to model the conflict resolution process. The use of open-ended interviews constituted the methods of data collection. Employees from two departments (Research/Design and Supplies) of the organization were selected. The analysis of data in the first part of the thesis led to the development of a net model, indicating patterns of conflict handling behaviour during any conflict episode; the generic structure of the net model, which was found to be common to both departments, was discussed in the light of Greek culture, as well as of the bureaucratic practices of that particular organization. On the basis of this analysis, a further analysis was made of the data relating to those nodes of the net model where employees were found to be involved in a decision making process. The methodology selected enabled the representation of the process of the conflict management problem by organizational members. The basic assumption incorporated within this methodology is that the conflict management problem can be represented in more than one way. The identification, via employees' discourse, of the way in which conflict situations are conceptualized in the context of the two departments, indicated how this representation relates to the wider social and organizational nexus within which it is embedded. The contribution of this study lies in identifying the conflict resolution structures and processes within two departments of the organization studied and, to a certain extent, the wider organization, while offering an insight into how this organization shapes the way in which conflict situations are processed by organizational members, using their own discourse.

Malaysia is one of a number of developing countries that have used employee share ownership schemes as part of its strategy to further economic development. There is a considerable literature on employee share ownership. However most of it has been based on schemes implemented in developed countries where their contextual environments are different from the one in Malaysia. It is expected that the different context will affect the implementation and the outcome of the schemes. This study looks at a number of issues related to the 'employee share option scheme' (ESOS), a common form of employee share ownership scheme in Malaysia. First this study identifies the nature and structure of the schemes implemented in the country. This is important as the nature of the scheme can affect its effectiveness. Furthermore, the type of scheme introduced in Malaysia has been distinctive. Second this study looks at the objectives of companies in introducing the schemes and their perception of the scheme's effectiveness. Third this study looks at the employees' understanding of the schemes and the relationship of the scheme to employees' attitudes and to organisation identification. Fourth, the relationship between the schemes and trade unions is identified. The results of this study shows that the nature and the structure of the schemes seem to be localised to suit the Malaysian context, even though the objectives of management in implementing them seem similar to the objectives of managers elsewhere. One interesting finding from this study, which does not seem to have been found elsewhere is that ESOS tends to be used by the government as part of its strategy to close the economic disparity between the ethnic groups and to educate its citizens about shares as part of its National Economic Development Policy. One of the other findings was that although on one measure (a comparison of participants and non-participants) there seems to be no significant effect on attitude towards work and company, on another measure (the employees' perception of the effect of membership of an employee share option scheme) participation seems to have a positive effect on identification with the company. Two factors that seem to differentiate Malaysia from other countries are its ethnic groups and its religion. These two variables appear to be related to the employees' view of the success of the scheme. The findings of this study also suggest that the role of trade unions does not appear to have been affected by the introduction of the employee share option scheme. On the contrary, the scheme seems to have strengthened the role of the union. Finally, this study looks at the overall relationship of the scheme to the contextual factors of the country. It is suggested that to some extent the contextual factors of the country seem to have influenced the implementation and the outcome of the scheme. This conclusion raises and strengthens the questions about the universality of implementation and the outcome of employee share ownership schemes.

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