PS 11/Econ 11:

PS 11/Econ 11 –Reading Response Assignments
 
Instructions: Please answer BOTH questions to the best of your ability. Each answer should no less than half a page single-spaced, but will probably require more than this. Your entire reading response should be anywhere from 1-2 pages single-spaced (500-1000 words). You are required to use your textbook but are also welcome to use outside sources as well. Please be sure to put things into your own words, do not write phrases directly from the text. Some questions will require you to simply summarize the information. Other questions will require you to think critically and present your own critique, argument, or opinion. Be sure to explain your answers and opinion, providing extensive evidence.
 
Rubric: A good paper will have the following

  • A clear and original argument (this means going beyond just summarizing what the text says, take a stance on the issue and defend your stance)
  • A detailed introduction paragraph that provides a roadmap to your paper. I should be able to read your introduction and know exactly what you will argue/talk about in the rest of the paper.
  • Evidence that supports your argument (quantitative like statistics or data or qualitative like your own life experiences, work, or historical examples)
  • The paper has thoroughly answered ALL of the questions
  • The paper uses citations from the text and possibly outside sources
  • No grammatical or syntax errors- make sure you read and edit your paper.

 
Citations: If you cite something directly from the book please put the pg. number in parentheses at the end of the sentence as such: (pg. # ). You do not need to provide a bibliography or works cited pg. if you only use the textbook. If you use outside sources (internet, books, etc.) please use APSA format and include a works cited/bibliography.  You can find APSA format instructions here: http://citesource.trincoll.edu/apsa/apsaconfpaper_000.pdf or https://www.tamiu.edu/uc/writingcenter/documents/APSAformatanddocumentation_7-30-12_JM.pdf
 
 
***MUST SUBMIT TO TURNITIN BEFORE CLASS BEGINS TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT
 

  • Reading Response 1- DUE August 30th

Describe the 3 main perspectives (also called “ideologies”) of International Political Economy.  Which perspective do you find most convincing—that is, which one offers the most accurate description of politics and economics? Use evidence from the history and current events to support your argument.
 

  • Reading Response 2- DUE September 13th

Explain the arguments for free trade. Why do so many people still oppose free trade policies? Is your country more protectionist or liberal when it comes to trade? Make 3 trade policy recommendations for your country.
 

  • Reading Response 3- DUE October 2nd

What causes financial crises? What caused the 2008 global financial crisis? Who is to blame for 2008 and what lessons should be learned? How should U.S. policy reflect those lessons?
 

  • Reading Response 4- DUE October 18th

What are the primary differences between liberal and coordinated market economies? What are some of the consequences of each system (i.e. employment, wages, commodities produced, policies concerning regulation, vocational training etc.) What is your country? Which system would you prefer and why? Is there anything that the author’s are missing-do you have any criticism for their explanations?
 

  • Reading Response 5- DUE October 30th

What are the explanations for Africa’s economic stagnation and extreme poverty? What are the solutions? Is it foreign aid? More trade? What do you think? Be sure to defend your argument.
 
 

 
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University of London Varieties of Capitalism Paper

QUESTION
Required:
You are required to write a 2000 words (+10%) essay on one of the following topics:
 

  • Critically analyse the Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) approach and discuss its strengths and limitations within the context of employment relations.

 
NOTE: Your answer should include related key concepts, issues, theories, examples and research evidence.
 
You need to discuss:

  • The Varieties of Capitalism approach
  • Its main features and examples of countries
  • Implications for employment relations and HR
  • Strengths and advantages
  • Its limitations

 
You must provide examples to support and illustrate your arguments. For example, the USA and UK are examples of LMEs

  • What are the main features of these economies
  • How does this affect employment relations systems in these countries
  • What are the implications for companies wishing to invest in these countries.

What about CMEs such as Germany

  • What are the main features and implications for employment practices and MNCs wishing to invest in Germany
  • How helpful is the analysis of these economies for businesses
  • What are the limitations etc

Varieties of Capitalism:

  • Two types of economy;
  • CME (Coordinated Market Economy) such as Germany
  • LME (Liberal Market Economy) such as the US and the UK

Convergence

  • As capitalism develops, the economies of different countries tend to become more similar
  • Because…..over time countries naturally select the models which yield the best results
  • Globalisation pushes for convergence between counties
  • But, Hall and Soskice argue institutional differences in different countries limits this convergence and pushes more for divergence

 
Divergence

  • Hall and Soskice in identifying different Varieties of Capitalist economy argue that different economies are generally ‘path dependent’. i.e. the changes they adopt over time are likely to be shaped by their own particular models.
  • Hence, far from converging, European economies are actually becoming more different

 
 
For example: changes both in the UK and Germany but still differences
The UK
Since 1979, the IR system has experienced substantial change from a voluntarist system to one of increased state intervention
Despite increased juridification, there is still not a strong and centrally regulated IR system. This has resulted in employer autonomy to pursue either a:
– low-road/contract approach of cost-minimisation (majority approach)
– high-road/status approach of high-commitment
 
Germany
Traditional highly integrated, highly regulated, ‘dual system’ is eroding.
Since 1990s, changes to the key institutions and procedural rules have led to greater variation in ER practices and an increasing resemblance to the Anglo-American model, though complete convergence is unlikely
Decentralisation –balance of power between unions and employer associations, and employers and works councils has shifted as the scope of negotiations at the enterprise level has broadened

 
The Core Difference between CMEs and LMEs
 

  • CME institutions are there to encourage cooperation between economic actors,
  • LME institutions are there to encourage competitive market-based relationships between economic actors
  • However, the important thing is the nature of the relationships between firms and other economic actors

 
 
 
 
Five Actors
Five areas in which these relationships are needed:

  1. Industrial relations (i.e. bargaining mechanisms)
  2. Vocational training and education
  3. Corporate governance
  4. Inter-firm relations
  5. Employees (i.e. participation, consensus-building, etc)

In each of these categories, firms must find ways to coordinate to maximise their capabilities, but they find very different ways of doing so
 
LMEs

  • Tend not to provide for collective bargaining
  • More decentralised, adversarial and voluntarist industrial relations systems
  • Likely to appeal to governments to enhance managerial power over unions in the workplace
  • Highly generalised systems of education and weak apprenticeship programmes and little commitment to enable industry-specific or firm-specific training schemes.
  • Transferable skills rather than industry specific
  • There are strong hierarchies in LME corporate governance answerable to shareholders

LME

  • There is little effort to coordinate with others to develop mutually beneficial industry norms.
  • There is very rarely any encouragement towards employee participation and consensus-building
  • Power is more likely to rest unilaterally with the CEO
  • Inter-firm relations are competitive

 
CME

  • Key issues are more likely to be addressed through non-market based coordination
  • Centralised bargaining regimes- perhaps on the national level (e.g. Sweden) or else on the sectoral level (e.g. Germany)
  • More likely to coordinate their training expectations in the longer term e.g. employers in a CME engineering sector might collaborate to develop a list of skill requirements, and then cooperate with government in developing specific training programmes geared towards these priorities

 
CME

  • Firms are expected to cultivate corporate governance that furthers these norms; managerial unilateralism in pursuit of shareholder value is frowned upon. Financial investments in companies tend to be more ‘strategic’.
  • A strong reliance on employers’ associations and dialogue between firms; cooperation between firms to develop industry-wide standardisation
  • An emphasis on employee consensus e.g. German Works Councils which have responsibility for various issues of work organisation at shop floor level

 
So VoC’s

  • Are interested in the reciprocal relationships and expectations that develop between firms and the state/organised labour for strategic purposes.
  • Are concerned with how institutions can encourage the kinds of strategic interaction appropriate for the type of economy. A key question is why firms would buy into the kinds of coordination discussed above with CMEs (or in the case of LMEs, why they wouldn’t).
  • Is it the role of the state to facilitate and encourage the appropriate kind of interaction between firms?
  • Should the state provide incentives for interaction between firms?

 
Employer Associations

  • Extremely important actors in this analysis
  • Their role can be massively different in different economies e.g. The CBI or IoD in Britain wanted trade unions to be crushed, and have lobbied MPs to this end.
  • However, CME equivalents play an integral role in developing training programmes, standardisation regimes, employment norms, industry strategies, etc.
  • What about Employer Associations in other countries?

 
Complementarity and Comparative Advantage

  • LMEs and CMEs have their own systems and their own advantages
  • LME: better economic performance may demand policies that sharpen market competition
  • CME: may benefit more from policies that reinforce the capacities of actors for non-market coordination
  • State strategies and firm strategic interests are bound together in a reciprocal and self-reinforcing way
  • Distinction here is between ‘radical innovation’ (LME) and ‘incremental innovation’ (CME)

LME
In LMEs, companies are more responsive to unilateral managerialism so:

  • They don’t bother so much about taking risks with employees’ jobs,
  • They don’t have to plan in advance what kind of skills they are going to need,
  • They don’t have to cooperate with other firms over standardisation regimes

Hence, they are suited to a ‘radical innovation’ model in which it is relatively easier to begin new projects which are disconnected from things that have gone before. 
 
CME
The reverse is true in CMEs. Because:

  • They need to get employees on board
  • They need to adhere to standards and training regimes, etc

Eg The Japanese model of Total Quality Management in which shop-floor employees are a key part of the quality control process
Hence CMEs are more inclined to the gradual improvement of the quality of existing products and ‘Incremental Innovation’
 
Institutional Complementarity

  1. The co-existence of two or more institutions enhances the functioning of each institution
  2. A situation of interdependence among institutions
  3. The degree of institutional diversity that can be observed across and within socio-economic systems, and its consequences on economic performance

Institutional Complementarity

  • Hall and Soskice argue that rather than there being one “best” set of institutions, there are certain sets of institutions in the economic and the political realm that fit together better than others – they form “institutional complementarities”.
  • They distinguish “liberal” from “coordinated” market economies in which mutually related mechanisms reign with regard to areas such as industrial relations between employers and employees (or unions), institutions for vocational training and education, corporate governance, or inter-firm relations
  • Institutions: the market, state, MNCs…

 
Criticisms of V0C
Over simplified and Generalised:

  • Divides the world into two models
  • LMEs and Radical Innovation: future focused industries?
  • CMEs and Incremental Innovation: declining industries?
  • Marginal differences between radical and incremental eg. new products or improved products

What problem do economic systems solve?

  • Lack of coordination
    • Industrial relations: tendency to compete for workers => wage-price spirals
    • Vocational training and education: why invest if other firms will just poach
    • Corporate governance: how to ensure that finance goes to right places
    • Inter-firm relations: risk of exploitation in R&D, technology transfers, standard setting
    • Employees: how to get them to cooperate

 
Which is Better?
Be careful of generalizing current trends:

  • 1950s-1970s: Germany and France strong, US and UK sluggish
  • 1980s-1990s: US and UK grow quickly, France and Germany sluggish
  • Does this mean liberal model is better?
  • Or coordinated model?

 
Liberal Market Economy
Fundamental principle: Market relations between firms and between workers and firms

  • Raising investments: international and domestic capital markets
  • Corporate governance: outsider control, shareholders
  • Industrial relations: pluralist, few collective agreements
  • Education and training: general skills, high spending on R&D
  • Transfer of innovation: markets & contracts, movement of workers

Logic of LMEs
Privilege creative destruction, innovation, and flexibility

  • General skills means that workers can be quickly redeployed
  • Weak unions and pluralist labour relations restrains wages and maintains flexibility
  • Stock market and takeovers discipline firms

Problems of a Coordinated Market Economy
Firms depend on highly skilled labour force and long-term plans

  • But this creates dangers:
    • Other firms can poach workers after trained
    • Workers can hold management hostage because hard to replace
    • Workers will only invest in specific skills if guaranteed a job
    • Other firms can steal projects while being developed
    • Investors get cold feet

Solutions in CMEs
Long-term relations with banks

  • Firms don’t have to change path with daily changes in stock market – can retain skilled workers even in downturn
  • Financers have access to inside information, not just public reports

Long-term job contracts, publicly subsidized training, industry-wide wage settlements & work councils

  • Little incentive to poach workers – wages same
  • Workers willing to invest in skills – guaranteed jobs

 
 
 
 
 

 
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BUS2074 /LBU 2074: 2000 words International HRM essay

BUS2074 /LBU 2074 Semester 2 Assessment: Individual Essay (50%) Required: You are required to write a 2000 words (+10%) essay on one of the following topics: 1) Critically analyse the Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) approach and discuss its strengths and limitations within the context of employment relations. OR 2) Identify and critically analyse two specific issues related to the state of labour standard and employment practices in developing economies. NOTE: Your answer should include related key concepts, issues, theories, examples and research evidence. SUBMISSION GUIDANCE Title Guidance University coversheet Include Module title and code, assessment title, date of submission, word count. Sources of references It is important to engage with academic literature (journal articles, book chapters and monographs) in your assignment. Some journals with an IBM focus include Journal of World Business, Journal of International Business Studies, Socioeconomic Review, Economy and Society, Review of International Political Economy, Management International Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Organization Studies, Human Relations, Asia Pacific Business Review, China Quarterly, Work, Employment and Society etc. Reference Style Harvard style (see the Learning Resources website: http://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/referencing/harvardatnewcastle) Appendices Lengthy appendices are not necessary. Word Count The length of the essay is 2000 words (+/- 10%). The list of references is not included in the word-count of the paper. Feedback Feedback will be provided after 20 working days after submission Assessment Criteria University UG Assessment Criteria Style The essay should be typed in double spacing on A4 sized paper with margins of 1.5cm on left, right, top and bottom. Font size for text must be 12 and all pages should be numbered. Submission type Upload the electronic copy of your report to Turnitin using the assignment link on Blackboard. Submission Date Deadline of submission : Friday 1 May 2019 by 4pm …

 
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Identify employment relations issues/problems

Question Description

Length and/or format: 1200 words

For this assignment you are required to identify employment relations issues/problems which are currently or have very recently been in the Australian news media. The issues/ problems should relate to some aspect of one of the topics covered in Weeks 3 and 4.
Both Weeks 3 and 4 relate to the role of the State:
Week 3 – The political, economic and social context in which employment relations is practiced
Government and opposition party policies/changes to laws
Union campaigns
Suggested topics to choose from are listed below:

  • Trade union powers/regulation
  • Regulatory bodies (eg. Australian Building & Construction Commission)
  • Wages and conditions for workers (eg. penalty rates, minimum wages)

Week 4 – Legal framework of employment.
Legal processes/substantive and procedural rules
Workplace Ombudsman investigations/decisions
Suggested topics to choose from are listed below:

  • Workplace discrimination
  • Contractors/minimum conditions
  • Unfair dismissal

What should you do?

  1. Summarise of learnings relating to one aspect of workplace relations from Weekly Topics in Weeks 3 and/or 4:

Summarise your learnings from readings (newspaper articles and anything from the text book relating to the issue/topic), journal articles (eg. articles from journals such as The Journal of Industrial Relations, The Australian Bulletin of Labor, Labor and Industry, workshop discussions and other readings.

  1. Reflect on your learnings:
    1. choose any topic from the workshop, readings and discussions during relating to Weeks 3 and/or 4.
    2. Follow the structure below.

The reflective questions you need to address are:

  • What are the major current themes and issues?
  • What are the employers’ perspectives?
  • What are the employees’ perspectives?
  • What are the implications of the issue for organisations e.g. brand, reputation?
  • What is the State’s interests in the issue?

This critique should be against the theories and practical material discussed in class as well as additional research by students. You should use the text as a starting point and research recent high quality journal articles on the issue.
This is your chance to consider real employment relations situations and either support or argue a perspective, rather than just accepting what has been delivered.
A possible structure for the report could be

  • Introduction – Major themes and issues (200 words)
  • Employers’ perspective (250 words)
  • Employees’ perspective (250 words)
  • Implications for the organisation (250 words)
  • Political, social and economic context (250 words)
  • Reference List
 
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