Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Industrial sociology. Social conditions of labor'

This thesis investigates the nature of work culture and industrial relations at the Linwood car plant during the period 1963-1981. In Part One, Chapter One provides an overview of the historical debate over the use of oral testimony as well as introducing the methodology employed within the oral history project encompassed within the thesis. Chapter Two provides an analysis of the nature of work at the Linwood car plant and the ways in which this impacted on behaviour and attitudes in the workplace. This is further developed in Chapter Three where the focus is on organisational mischief, and consideration is given to the nature, consequences and explanations for this behaviour. The analysis developed in Part One, focuses on the dominant explanations for problematic industrial relations based on the notion of a ‘clash of work cultures’ due to an absence of intrinsic rewards in automated assembly-line work. Within the thesis such dominant narratives are not entirely supported by the Linwood sample, as a wide variety of attitudes towards work are exhibited, leading the thesis to question the validity of the categories of intrinsic and extrinsic reward. In Part Two of the thesis there is a shift in focus as the analysis concentrates on structures of authority at Linwood and the impact on industrial relations. Chapter Four gives consideration to the influence of historical contingency on management decision-making. Part of the 1976 government rescue package was a Planning Agreement incorporating employee participation in management decision-making that articulated with the Labour government’s manifesto commitment to industrial democracy. Yet throughout the different phases of ownership, interactions between management and workers at the Linwood plant explored in this thesis reveal a dichotomy between the rhetoric and reality of industrial democracy and worker participation. The final chapter of the thesis offers an exploration of shop floor industrial politics, and causes of strikes, to highlight the narratives of tension underpinning interactions at Linwood. The thesis provides a nuanced approach, highlighting variety of experience and importantly a complex interplay of interests shaping work culture and the nature of industrial relations in the car plant.

Capturing Appalachia: Visualizing Coal, Culture and Ecology, draws on extensive ethnographic, archival, and ecographic research conducted across Appalachia between 2014-2016 to develop an empirically informed sociological image of the interactions between culture, geography, and industry. Of particular interest are the ways that extractive cultures in Appalachia are constructed and communicated, and so the project includes archival work researching historical images as well as fieldwork focused on the production of images. Drawing on the traditions of cultural and ‘green’ criminologies, geography, and critical ecotheory, concluding that the cultural, political, and ecological worlds of Appalachia exist in a dialectical relationship with one another, and that at the center of each is an intense cultural relationship with the region’s historic and contemporary capture (cultural, economic, and ecological) by resource extraction. These dialectical relationships are made clear in the visuality of Appalachia, with paradigms frequently challenged by the production of countervisual narratives in productions spanning photography, literature, cinema, and media. The project constitutes the first extensive empirical application of the suggestions of an emergent green-cultural criminology. This research contributes significantly to the existing theoretical literature on extractive cultures through the development and application of the concept of ‘capture’, which is employed in throughout and which constitutes a central concept the project. The concept of ‘regulatory capture’ informs much of the existing sociological literature on harmful industry. Expanding on the concept of ‘capture’, I consider the capture of Appalachian economies by a single industry (economic capture), the capture of cultural production by the dominant industry (cultural capture), the legal capture of material landscapes by industry (ecological capture), the visual-mechanical capture of images of ecology and culture (photographic capture), and finally, the capture of ecology and people by an emerging industry of incarceration (carceral capture).

Private, non-governmental programs for certifying companies as environmentally or socially responsible emerged in the 1990s in response to problems of sweatshops in the global apparel industry and deforestation in the forest products industry. The similarity between certification programs in each field is striking but has received little attention to date. Neither pure self-regulation nor traditional public regulation, certification programs embody a type of "private regulation by information." Why did this same regulatory form emerge in these two very different fields? Theories focusing on consumer demand, the globalization of production, threats of state intervention, and cultural diffusion all fall short of explaining the emergence of certification systems in both the apparel and forest products fields. This dissertation develops an integrated institutional approach to the emergence of certification systems, focusing on three dimensions of institutional emergence--political, organizational, and cultural. This approach calls for careful attention to historical process, macro-meso linkages, institutional embeddedness, and the dynamics of political contestation--with particular emphasis on the place of social movements in organizational fields. The project uses a comparative case study methodology, drawing on data from 37 in-depth interviews with individuals involved in the creation of certification programs, comprehensive content-coding of four trade journals from 1987-2000, and some archival and secondary materials. An analysis of the political processes through which certification associations initially emerged reveals two important factors--social movement campaigns that targeted companies and a neo-liberal institutional context. These led states, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and some companies to build or support private certification programs, and foreclosed some other options. An analysis of organizational founding shows how dynamics of innovation and challenge produced multiple certification programs competing for legitimacy in each field. The cultural aspect of institutional emergence is captured through an analysis of how the meanings of certification and monitoring changed over time in the industry discourse, as these practices got theorized and re-framed by a variety of actors. By utilizing an integrated institutional approach, this research illuminates the interactions of macro-level changes (like globalization) and the concrete actors (institutional entrepreneurs) that produced certification initiatives.

This thesis examines the productive and reproductive experiences of discount department store workers. More specifically, I investigate how female and male Wal-Mart employees reproduce and resist their spatial, social and economic relations, both inside their paid workplace, and outside, in their homes and community. I examine the history of discount department stores and workers; the role of place in influencing workers' experiences; the spatial, social and economic divisions of labor in the paid workplace, home and community; and specific acts of reproduction and resistance on the part of my co-workers. I used covert participant observation and informal interviews in order to learn about Wal-Mart workers paid and unpaid work experiences. I was employed for eight months as a part-time salesclerk by Wal-Mart. This enabled me to observe the various spatial, social and economic relations at work within the store, and it allowed me to hear about my co-workers' experiences outside the paid workplace, in the course of everyday conversations.

A state and year fixed effects model is developed to analyze the influence of state unemployment insurance taxes and state workers' compensation costs on temporary help services employment concentration. Using state level panel data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, state unemployment insurance tax factors are found to have significant effects on temporary help services employment concentration. Workers' compensation costs had a significant effect on temporary help services employment concentration during the Great Recession, but not before. Because temporary help services jobs represent low quality jobs relative to traditional direct-hire jobs, state unemployment insurance taxes, through their impact on temporary help services employment concentration, contribute to a decrease in job quality. The results of the analysis suggest that the effects of policy factors on job quality merit further analysis.

This project examines how changing organizational arrangements in a technological field affect individual level outcomes and processes of career formation. In the field of the life sciences, the biotechnology industry has emerged as an employment option with a fundamentally different organizational form. Three main research questions are addressed concerning the changing organizational setting of life science careers: (1) How are traditional stratification of science patterns affected by the option of employment in network rather than hierarchical, organizations? (2) Who enters a new, sought after, employment arena first? and (3) How does a new career path become legitimate? The data collected for this project are both quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data were gathered from National Institutes of Health archives. Logistic regression analyses were performed on the sample of 3395 PhDs to estimate dichotomous career outcomes. The qualitative data come from interviews and ethnographic observations with scientists in a variety of settings--university laboratories, commercial firms, and government institutes. While traditional patterns of stratification in science--educational background and gender--were found to have effects in this sample as well, organizational context is very important to understanding how stratification may be mitigated. Gender inequality in the attainment of leadership level positions was consistently found in more hierarchical organizational settings, but did not appear in network organizations (biotechnology firms). In contrast, educational background had significant effects across all types of organizational forms. PhDs with elite educations were more likely to enter biotechnology both in earlier and later periods of industry history. Male and female PhDs were equally likely to enter the biotechnology industry, and this result also did not vary by time period. The common frames used by scientists in biotech and other science-based organizations to legitimate biotechnology work include: resources (scientific as well as monetary), networks (ties to respected scientists who endorse biotech), and analogies to academe. Biotechnology employment is retroframed as similar to yet different from academic work---indicating some interesting frame tension. This study has implications for scholarship particularly in the areas of organization theory, sociology of science, and gender and work.

This study explains why, beginning in 1976 and continuing into the 1980s, unions lost power in Mexico. The recent loss of power in Mexico is consistent with a worldwide convergence towards declining union power. Few would dispute that declining union power is related to globalization. But how does globalization affect union power? This study demonstrates that the prevailing approach to globalization and union power, the market pressures approach, cannot explain why labor unions lost power in Mexico. This suggests that in countries, such as Mexico, where unions rely on political support rather than organizational resources to attain power, increased exposure to market pressures may not explain declining union power. Only unions in advanced industrial societies enjoy the market conditions that make it possible to gain power via their organizational resources. I propose that, in countries where organized labor derives its power from its relationship to the state, globalization affects union power via the domestic instantiations of globalization. The way that global economic shocks and the interests of foreign investors shape the interests of domestic economic elite constitute the domestic instantiations of globalization. My approach builds on the International Political Economy research tradition. This study shows that labor lost power in Mexico for two nested reasons. First, labor lost power because it lost access to decision-making in the state. Second, labor lost access to decision-making because global economic crisis and new foreign investment strategies created a new internationalist elite oriented towards foreign credit and global markets. Disillusioned with the existing political leadership and their "national" economic project, the internationalist elite promoted the rise to power of new political leaders that favored neoliberal economic reforms. Bureaucrats, allied with the internationalists, undermined labor along with other advocates of the "national" project, as part of a struggle for power. This study delineates the aspect of the state-labor alliance in Mexico that granted labor unions power historically and reveals the importance of globalization in determining labor's recent fate in Mexico. It contributes a new model of globalization and union power, raising questions about how sociologists conceptualize globalization and state-society relations more generally.

The "New Institutionalism" (DiMaggio and Powell 1991) posits a Theory of Practical Action as the basis for persisting social arrangements in economic life. In this project, I use this perspective to explain the social construction and organization of the life insurance industries of New York and Arizona. I develop an institutionalized-strategies explanation of industry organization. Research by Dobbin (1994b) showed the influence of embedded "institutional logics" in shaping rational responses to the economic business of railroads in Britain, France, and the United States. I combine Dobbin's argument with recent research on the development of state-level economic policies in the United States. Leicht and Jenkins (1994) identified three distinct "strategies" employed by states in implementing economic policies, and they imply that the strategies differ mainly in their "assumptions about the nature of economic growth and the role of the state" in economic development (1994:257). 1 argue that these findings suggest that states adopt a particular strategy--a set of similar Policy tools ("tactics") for specific policy targets. Applied to the insurance industries of New York and Arizona, an institutionalized-strategies view proposes that variation in state insurance laws reflects the meanings lawmakers associate with the economic enterprise of "life insurance." Different public conceptions of life insurance as a business led to different meanings for policymakers, and these meanings defined what tactics of control are legitimate and appropriate. These meanings derived from the economic and cultural legacy in the state--cultural heritage and economic history gave meaning to images of life insurance as a business enterprise. The legitimate, rational actions (tactics) of policymakers followed from the cultural legacy of the two states, and they constituted overall strategies directed at controlling life insurance companies. The sociocultural and historical embeddedness of meanings associated with the business of life insurance makes the lines of action rational in the minds of policymakers. In addition to showing how this process operated in the two states, I document the outcomes of such organizing activity--different rates of organizational dynamics and industry trajectories as reflected in rates of foundings, entries, and failures of life insurance companies.

This investigation attempted to ascertain whether managerial perceptions of potentially unethical business conduct, and recommendations for social control, vary according to the social characteristics of the employee committing the behavior. Subjects consisted of management personnel from a variety of industries. Data was gathered via instruments developed for this research. Instruments consisted of (1) a description of an employee; (2) a description of a potentially unethical behavior committed by the employee; and (3) scales for subjects to (a) rate the seriousness of the employee's behavior and (b) recommend the social control they would use against the employee. Perceptions of seriousness did vary significantly with variations in the employee's social characteristics. However, recommendations for social control did not vary with changes in employee characteristics. Thus, whereas observers may judge the ethicality of socially decontextualized behaviors against universally held standards of morality, observers become less adamant about these standards as the behavior becomes more contextualized.

Gregory (2003) demonstrated that for the past thirty-five years small steps of progress have been made towards women's equality. However, he stated that sex discrimination is still blatant, subtle and covert and it continues to plague working women. He continued to argue that nearly all the population of women in the U.S. encounter obstacles in job advancement, whether the obstacles are glass or cement ceilings or ordinary brick walls. (p.5). The researcher will attempt to elaborate on disparate treatment women have endured for generations. With the current pay scale between women and men, women receive 23 cents less than their male colleagues out of every dollar earned. Because this system exist, it impedes a woman's holistic growth and functionality. For example, there are some women who are trapped in abusive relationships but cannot leave because they lack adequate financial resources.

Gregory (2003) pointed out that employer retaliation comes in various forms, although employers tend to favor discharge over other options. (p.162). He also stated that other forms of retaliation employers use to punish their employees for having engaged in protected activities include denials of promotion and demotions (p.163). The fear of retaliation prevents a woman from reporting the perpetrator. In addition, some of the political realm is working night and day against the improvement and progress of the women's population. With the above argument made about the disparate treatments towards women, the researcher will apply the qualitative method in this thesis to breakdown problems women face. Plus, the researcher makes suggestions how the nation can be involved in resolving and eliminating these issues, individually and collectively, to moving women's rights and progress forward and permanently.

Since the copper boom of the late nineteenth century, mining companies have been riding "the copper roller coaster." The well being of miners and their families appears to be tied to international market forces beyond their control. This dissertation uses a case study of miners in Cananea, Sonora, to analyze the relationships between changes in Mexican mineral policy from 1960 to 1998 and Mexico's economic connections with the United States. It employs Immanuel Wallerstein's framework of a world-system linked through hegemonic relationships between a core country, a semiperiphery and periphery (C-SP-P), and looks at the economic and political circumstances under which shifts in this system occur. Within this world-system Kondratieff waves are used to depict periods of stagnation and growth. Policy changes are reflected in economic cycles, and policy also shapes copper extraction, production and marketing. Until the 1970s American multinational corporations under privatization extracted surplus copper from Sonora as a peripheral region. However, once Mexico embarked on a policy of nationalization of the mineral industry (1971-1989), the country intentionally delinked from the U.S. In 1990 the Cananea mine was again privatized as part of Mexico's economic restructuring, with production directed toward international markets. Policy changes are evaluated in terms of Mexican development and the well being of the miners. This analysis is based upon the concept of articulation between capitalist modes of production within the world-system. The concept "articulation" includes confrontations and alliances between classes within each region or country as well as the relations between the C-SP-P. In particular, the miners use political linkages with the national union to defend their interests. However, with economic restructuring and privatization in the 1980s and 1990s, the government-labor alliance is supplanted by government-business alliance, and labor conflict and workforce transformation result. Policy turnovers influence everyday practices in gender relations as families face economic crises. Miners' wives form a political front to support their husbands' struggles with the company and to maintain access to potable water. Furthermore, attitudes toward environmental resource use are caught between maintaining the miners' job source and securing a safe and reliable source of water for the region.

This thesis explores the experience of work and industrial relations at the British Motor Corporation’s commercial vehicle assembly plant at Bathgate in West Lothian, from its establishment in 1961 until its closure in 1986. The plant opened in Scotland as a result of a government regional development policy which sought to create jobs and ameliorate the rundown of heavy industry in areas of high unemployment. The thesis considers the role of such policy in shaping industrial development since 1945, and, using the oral history testimony of former Bathgate workers to examine the impact of economic and social change on Scotland’s industrial population, contributes to the regional policy literature by extending the analysis beyond questions about its efficacy and considering the experiences of the workers and communities directly affected by such initiatives. What emerges from this study of regional policy from the perspective of the shopfloor is the extent to which the plant’s establishment on a greenfield site, in an area of high unemployment, very much on the periphery of the UK motor industry and with little tradition of mass assembly production processes, shaped the subsequent evolution of its working conditions, industrial relations, and worker attitudes, as well as its position within the Bathgate community. The Bathgate experience therefore illuminates a number of key debates in the wider historiography of Britain and Scotland since 1945, not only in relation to regional policy itself, but also with regard to the motor industry, its industrial relations, and the development, in the post-war context of relatively high wages and the increasing stability of work, of a more typically ‘affluent’ working class. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part One explores some of the issues surrounding the plant’s establishment in West Lothian, particularly the regional policy aspects, and the plant’s position within and relationship to both the wider BMC – later British Leyland – organisation and the British motor industry more generally. Part Two draws extensively on the influential ‘affluent worker’ thesis, as well as the literature around the industrial relations of motor manufacturing, in developing and exploring questions related to the way in which work was experienced at Bathgate, and the extent to which the attitudes and behaviour of its workforce came to reflect those which typified the motor worker elsewhere. Throughout, the thesis engages with and adds nuance to debates over the role of shopfloor organisation and strike activity in damaging the performance of British motor manufacturing, and, by drawing on the oral testimony of former Bathgate workers themselves, offers a fresh perspective on the post-war experience of regional policy both in a particular, under-researched regional policy plant, and in Scotland and Britain more broadly.

Participation of colorectal cancer survivors (CRC) in the workforce has been described by clinicians, survivors, and researchers as a way to improve mood, quality of life (QOL), and survival. Maintaining self-esteem and financial independence have also been attributed to continued employment of the CRC survivor. The purpose of this cross-sectional survey was to describe patterns of employment of the CRC survivor and to examine the individual, disease, and work-related factors that influence presenteeism and perceived adequacy of sick pay (ASP) policy. The Conceptual Model of Nursing and Health Policy and the Pathways to Work Life Recovery guided the design, selection of variables, and specification of the relationship between variables. The study included 97 CRC survivors who were employed at the time of diagnosis and who had completed treatment ≥6 months and < 7 years to survey. Among working subjects, at-work limitations ("presenteeism") were measured by the Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ) consisting of four scales: Time Management, Physical Tasks, Mental-Interpersonal Tasks, and Output Tasks scales. The EORTC QLQ-C30 V3 was used to measure quality of life and the PHQ-9 for depression. The majority of gaps in employment occurred within the first year of diagnosis (21%) and attributed to poor health (56%), having been fired or laid off due to cancer (11%) or retirement (33%). A total of 27% had gaps in employment by 3 years; 13% were intermittent. The unemployment rate for cancer survivors in this study was 18.6% at the time of survey. Slightly over 25% of those who experienced a gap in employment did so involuntarily. Higher education (OR = 0.346, p=.006) was the only variable that significantly associated with a gap in employment. Having insurance (p=.03), QOL (p=.01), and depression (p=.003) significantly contributed to increased presenteeism. Earlier stage (OR=0.330, p=.050) and professional occupation (OR=3.281, p=.040) significantly contributed to perceptions of having an ASP policy. The importance of measuring continued employment of CRC survivors is supported in this study. The provision of an ASP policy may avoid disruption of work and create an easier transition for continued employment of the CRC survivor.

This study is an exploratory case study on supervisors' and front line managers' current practices towards the promotion of the socialization of employees with disabilities with their non-disabled peers. The researcher interviewed eight participants, four men and four women, purposefully selected from Connecticut and Indiana in person or over the phone. Various supporting secondary data documents were located by the researcher on the internet to further explain the work place's role in the promotion of socialization of employees with disabilities with their coworkers. Utilizing the Social Identity (Turner, 1975) and Social Categorization (Tajfel, 1970) theories to further explain the phenomenon of social integration of employees with disabilities as it relates to the under employment of Americans with disabilities when compared to their non-disabled counterparts, the researcher hopes to answers the following research questions: How are supervisors and front line managers in various work place arenas currently promoting social integration of employees with disabilities with their non-disabled coworkers? How are supervisors and front line managers in various work place arenas currently utilizing work place accommodations, when requested, to promote the social integration of employees with disabilities with their non-disabled peers? Once socially integrated, are supervisors and front line managers in various workplace arenas able to retain employees with disabilities for the long term?

The thesis challenges popular generalisations about the trades, occupations and locations to which pauper apprentices were consigned, shining the spotlight away from the familiar narrative of factory children, onto the fate of their destitute peers in port towns. A comparative investigation of Liverpool, Bristol and Southampton, it adopts a deliberately broad definition of the term pauper apprenticeship in its multi-sourced approach, using 1710 Poor Law and charity apprenticeship records and previously unexamined New Poor Law and charity correspondence to provide new insight into the chronology, mechanisms and experience of pauper apprenticeship. Not all port children were shipped out. Significantly more children than has hitherto been acknowledged were placed in traditional occupations, the dominant form of apprenticeship for port children. The survival and entrenchment of this type of work is striking, as are the locations in which children were placed; nearly half of those bound to traditional trades remained within the vicinity of the port. The thesis also sheds new light on a largely overlooked aspect of pauper apprenticeship, the binding of boys into the Merchant service. Furthermore, the availability of sea apprenticeships as well as traditional placements caused some children to be shipped in to the ports for apprenticeships. Of those who were still shipped out to the factories, the evidence shows that far from dying out, as previously thought, the practice of batch apprenticeship persisted under the New Poor Law. The most significant finding of the thesis is the survival and endurance of pauper apprenticeship as an institution involving both Poor Law and charity children. Poor children were still being apprenticed late into the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Pauper apprenticeship is shown to have been a robust, resilient and resurgent institution. The evidence from port towns offers significant revision to the existing historiography of pauper apprenticeship.

O trabalho é um elemento transformador, não apenas do homem que trabalha, mas também da natureza, fonte – já não tão inesgotável de recursos -, além de modificador também das relações que se estabelecem na sociedade. A ampliação do processo do trabalho ensejou que o trabalhador passasse a ter garantido, por meio de leis e regulamentos, certos direitos frente ao tomador de seus serviços. Todavia, ainda que tenha havido progressos nesse âmbito, visto que constantemente novos direitos vão sendo incluídos no rol dos já existentes, nada ou quase nada foi feito para se garantir que os trabalhadores fossem capazes de tomar ciência dos efeitos de seu trabalho sobre o meio ambiente, assim como pouco tem sido feito no sentido de se procurar novas alternativas menos agressivas, no sentido de incluir o trabalhador na busca de desenvolver atividades cada vez menos nocivas à integridade dos recursos naturais. Primeiramente, porque a eles, na maioria das vezes, não cabe maior poder de decisão sobre a administração da organização; segundo, porque a busca por novas alternativas demanda, inicialmente, um dispêndio de valores que nem sempre as corporações estão dispostas a bancar. Todos os avanços referentes ao trabalho do ser humano demandam uma nova adaptação frente à degradação ambiental: é preciso uma educação ambiental para que ainda haja tempo de preservar o que resta da natureza.
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The work is a transforming element, not only for the man but also for the nature, a source not more as an inexhaustible resource, as well as a modifier mean of the relationship that has been established in the society. The expansion process of the work brought the opportunity and the guarantee to the employee by a series of laws and regulations and mainly by the rights against the employer. Although, some progress has been taken in this area, and another rights has been constantly included in this list, little or almost nothing has been done to ensure that the workers will be able and conscious from the effects of their work on the environment. Moreover, only few actions have been done in order to look for alternatives less aggressive, and to include the employee in the source and the development of new activities less harmful to the integrity of natural resources. First of all, to them, most of the times they don’t have greater power of the decisions on the administration of the organization, and second, because of the search for new alternatives request, initially, an amount of values that the corporations are not always willing to spend. All progress in the work of human beings requires a new adjustment against the environmental degradation: it is necessary an environmental education for that there is still time to preserve what remains of the nature.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2005.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-08, Section: A, page: 3111. Adviser: Arthur S. Alderson. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 5, 2006).

This thesis examines deindustrialisation, the declining contribution of industrial activities to economic output and employment, in Lanarkshire, Scotland’s largest coalfield between the early nineteenth and mid-twentieth century. It focuses on contraction between the National Coal Board’s (NCB) vesting in 1947 and the closure of Lanarkshire’s last colliery, Cardowan, in 1983. Deindustrialisation was not the natural outcome of either market forces or geological exhaustion. Colliery closures and falling coal employment were the result of policy-makers’ decisions. The thesis consists of four thematic chapters: political economy, moral economy, class and community, and generation and gender. The analysis is based on archival sources including Scottish Office reports and correspondence relating to regional policy, and NCB records. These are supported by National Union of Mineworkers Scottish Area and STUC meeting minutes, and oral history testimonies from over 30 men and women with Lanarkshire coalfield backgrounds, as well as two focus groups. The first two chapters analyse the process of deindustrialisation, with the first offering a top-down perspective and the second a bottom-up viewpoint. In chapter one deindustrialisation is analysed through changes in political economy. Shifts in labour market structure are examined through the development of regional policy and its administration by the Scottish Office. The analysis centres upon a policy network of Scottish business elites and civil servants who shaped a vision of modernisation via industrial diversification through attracting inward investment. In chapter two the perspective shifts to community and workforce. It analyses responses to coalfield contraction through a moral economy of customary rights to colliery employment. A detailed investigation of Lanarkshire colliery closures between the 1940s and 1980s emphasises the protracted nature of deindustrialisation. Chapters three and four consider the social and cultural structures which shaped the moral economy but were heavily altered by deindustrialisation. Chapter three focuses on the dense networks that linked occupation, community, and class consciousness. Increasing coalfield centralisation and remote control of pits from NCB headquarters in London, and mounting hostility to coal closures, contributed to an accentuated sense of Scottish-ness. Chapter four illuminates gender and generational dimensions. The differing experiences of cohorts of men who faced either early retirement, redundancy or transfer to alternative sectors, or those who never attained anticipated industrial employment due to final closures, are analysed in terms of constructions of masculinity and the endurance of cultural as well as material losses. This is counterpoised to women who gained industrial work in assembly plants and the perceived gradual attainment of an improved economic and social position whilst continuing to navigate structures of patriarchy.

This research has as an object of study female prostitution from the categories labor and gender. For both, it was discussed that the activity in the light of Marxist perspective focusing on productive and unproductive labor categories, seizing prostitution as a service. Moreover, the approach is contemporary transformations in the world of work, especially women´s work and its relation to prostitution. Was used as a method, materialism historical-dialectical, taking reality as a starting point. This is theoretical research, Qualitative and bibliographical and documentary character nature. It was found that the work accessed, no research addressing prostitution were found from the categories productive and unproductive labor in Marx. Thus, the authors claim that this activity is a work, based on the idea of prostitution as a means of survival. The research here presented, in addition to the determination of prostitution as an alternative income, points out that such activity is not a job, from the standpoint of social theory of Marx, considered as a service. Notwithstanding the various relations between prostitutes and owners brothels, the prostitute can not be considered a productive worker, since it does not generate added value, fundamental mediator for the characterization of productive work in production mode capitalist. Furthermore, we visualized prostitution as an activity pervaded by relations unequal gender, being mostly carried out by women and the nature of services provided, a service of a sexual nature.
A presente pesquisa teve como objeto de estudo a prostituição feminina a partir das categorias trabalho e gênero. Para tanto, discutiu-se a referida atividade à luz da perspectiva marxista, com foco nas categorias trabalho produtivo e improdutivo, apreendendo a prostituição como um serviço. Ademais, abordam-se as transformações contemporâneas no mundo do trabalho, em especial o trabalho feminino, e sua relação com a prostituição. Utilizou-se como método, o materialismo histórico-dialético, que toma a realidade como ponto de partida. Trata-se de pesquisa teórica, de natureza qualitativa e cunho bibliográfico e documental. Verificou-se que, dos trabalhos acessados, não foram encontradas pesquisas que abordam a prostituição a partir das categorias trabalho produtivo e improdutivo em Marx. Assim, os autores que afirmam que essa atividade é um trabalho, partem da ideia da prostituição como meio de sobrevivência. A pesquisa aqui apresentada, para além da determinação da prostituição como alternativa de renda, ressalta que tal atividade não é um trabalho, do ponto de vista da Teoria Social de Marx, sendo considerada como um serviço. Não obstante as diversas relações estabelecidas entre as prostitutas e os donos dos bordéis, a prostituta não pode ser considerada uma trabalhadora produtiva, visto que não gera mais-valia, mediação fundamental para a caracterização de trabalho produtivo no modo de produção capitalista. Ademais, visualiza-se a prostituição como uma atividade perpassada por relações de gênero desiguais, por ser majoritariamente exercida por mulheres e pela natureza dos serviços prestados, serviço este de cunho sexual.

This research study examines the impact of international migration of household labor for Bosnian immigrant women living in Portland, Oregon. Bosnia is a society with enduring patriarchal traditions which assume that women are in charge of doing household chores. Men are in charge of providing for the family monetarily. Many Bosnian families migrated to the U.S. in the mid 1990's in order to escape the war in Bosnia. In this study I interview 10 of these Bosnian women, concerning the division of labor in their homes in Bosnia and their homes in U.S. After migrating to the U.S. the amount of work women did within the home lessened as their husbands became more involved in helping with various chores. The changes in the division of household labor did not subvert traditional gender roles. Wives transferred and adapted their views of gender performativity after they migrated to the United States. The results are consistent with research that states that migrant women focus more on advancement of their family rather on their own emancipation.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Migration is the (usually free) movement of individuals from one place to another. Migration is formally conceptualized as the movement of households from relatively poorer regions - the sending areas -- to relatively better-off regions -- the receiving areas -- thereby enhancing the households' chances of improved access to resources. The migrant can be defined as a person that has gone out of his/her own free will from one place to another. In this sample and study, a distinction will be made between household heads born in the CMA, household heads that arrived before 1994, and household heads that arrived in the CMA in 1994 and thereafter. These migrants will be called "Household Head Born CMA", "Household Head older migrants", and "Household Head recent migrants" respectively. Informal squatter settlements are mushrooming at the outskirts of the CMA and very little is known about the motivation of migrants to leave their rural areas. In explaining the occurrence of migration and of why people migrate, one has to consider the push-pull theory. In the sending areas there are certain push factors, pushing the migrant out of the area. In the receiving area, there are pull factors, pulling the migrant towards the area. Migrants are also not a random selection of people. They have specific traits and differ from non-migrants in certain respects (age, life-cycle stage, marital status, education, occupation and status, cultural attributes and traditionalist vs. innovator). It was found in this study that the CMA as opposed to the Eastern Cape has certain differences, thereby pulling and pushing the migrant into and out of the areas respectively. Also, migrants seem to have different characteristics than that of the nonmigrant.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Swart In-Migrasie vanaf die Oos Kaap tot die Kaapse Metropolitaanse Area (KMA): Profiel van die Migrant en Migrasie Redes Oorsig Migrasie is die (gewoonlik vrye) beweging van indiwidue van een plek na 'n ander. Migrasie word formeel gedefinieer as die beweging van huishoudings vanaf afsend-areas tot ontvangs-areas. Die huishouding se kanse op beter toegang tot hulpbronne word verbeter. 'n Migrant is 'n persoon wat uit vrye wil van een area na die volgende trek. Onderskeid word gemaak tussen die huishouding-hoof wat gebore is in die KMA, die huishouding-hoof wat die KMA binne-getrek het voor 1994, en die huishouding-hoof wat die KMA binnegetrek het tydens 1994 en daarna. Informele nedersettings, oftewel plakkerskampe, is besig om vinnig toe te neem aan die buitwyke van die KMA en baie min inligting is beskikbaar oor wat potensiële migrante motiveer om die landelike gebiede te verlaat. Wanneer daar na die beweegredes gekyk word, is dit noodsaaklik om die "stoot en trek" teorie te oorweeg as 'n moontlike verduideliking. Migrante is ook nie 'n lukrake versameling van mense nie. Hulle het baie spesifieke eienskappe wat verskil van nie-migrante In sekere opsigte (ouderdom, lewens-siklus fase, huwelikstatus, opvoeding, beroep en status, kulturele eienskappe en so meer). In hierdie studie is gevind dat die Ooskaap en die KMA so verskil dat migrante na die KMA aangetrek word.

Notre thèse analyse les liens entre renforcement de la hiérarchisation au travail et modalités de résistances à un statut subalterne. Nous avons étudié, par le biais d’une enquête par entretien en France et en Belgique, un espace de travail en constant renouvellement :le commerce de détail en boutique dans le secteur du prêt à porter. Les travaux sociologiques sur la précarisation des statuts d’emploi ont été peu centrés sur les rapports de travail qui existent dans ce type d’entreprises dont l’un des critères déterminant reste le nombre limité de salariés dont une majorité de jeunes femmes. Le passage d’un commerce indépendant à un commerce de « boutiques de masse » rationalisé a induit une transformation des conditions d’encadrement. Du petit patron indépendant on passe au manager salarié. Cette nouvelle relation patronale, invisible, entraîne un renouvellement des modes de domination davantage fondés sur la compétition marchande justifiant une flexibilité temporelle et spatiale, et une disponibilité permanente. L’observation comparative des situations d’employé-e-s a permis de dégager des processus sociaux communs de résistance à une discipline de boutique, qui prenaient plusieurs formes selon l’expérience et les modalités des échanges réciproques au travail. La formation du processus conflictuel résulte de deux dynamiques de socialisation salariale, l’une individuelle, conduisant à la revendication de droits, et l’autre, intersubjective, productrice d’une représentation de possibilités d’agir social sur la précarité du statut au travail.

Titre en Anglais

Inferiorized work status and “salarial” conflict. Store employees in France and Belgium

RESUMÉ DE LA THÈSE EN ANGLAIS

Our dissertation aimed at showing the links between the strengthening of the establishment of hierarchy at work and the modes of resistance to a subaltern status. We studied a constantly renewing working space in France and Belgium: retail trade stores (ready-to-wear). Sociology works on the increasing lack of job security rarely investigated the work relations in these particular types of structures, in which the limited number of employees is a deciding characteristic, in particular young women. The passage from an independent trade to a rationalized « mass stores » trade lead to a transformation of the framing conditions. There has been a change from the small boss to the salaried manager. This new and invisible relation to the employer leads to a renewal of the modes of domination now based more on the market competition justifying a temporal and space flexibility, and permanent. The comparative observation of the situations of employees in France and Belgium allowed us to shed light on shared social processes of resistance to the store discipline, which take different shapes depending on the experience and the modes of reciprocal exchange at work. The development of the conflict process ensues from two dynamics of socialization ;one is an individual one that leads to a capacity to claim rights ;and one is an intersubjective, producing a representation of possible social act to the precarious status.

Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

En dépit de son importance dans la formation de la société contemporaine, le syndicalisme apparaît comme l’un des parents pauvres de l’historiographie en Belgique. Il y a plus de trente ans, Jean Puissant déplorait que l’historiographie syndicale était essentiellement « produite par le milieu syndical lui-même » et que sa fonction était généralement « la commémoration, la légitimation, la contestation ou encore la célébration » (Archivium, vol.XXVII, 1980). Plusieurs auteurs ont, à partir des années 1960 et surtout des années 1980, entamé une approche scientifique de l’histoire syndicale. Mais, en raison du manque cruel d’études systématiques préalables, cette production historique récente, plus riche de perspectives scientifiques, est demeurée largement monographique, ne dépassant que partiellement les clivages sectoriels, régionaux et politiques. « Des synthèses restent à faire, écrivait Antoine Prost en 1997 à propos de la France, [car] aucun de ces travaux ne réussit à lier de façon pleinement satisfaisante l’histoire du travail, celle des travailleurs et celle du mouvement ouvrier. [.] Les nouveaux paradigmes de l’histoire ouvrière continuent à se chercher » (Cahiers d’Histoire, n°66, 1997). Ce constat s’applique incontestablement à l’historiographie syndicale belge.

L’ambition de la présente thèse est de pallier l’absence d’étude d’ensemble sur le mouvement syndical belge de l’entre-deux-guerres, période essentielle dans le processus de mise en place du syndicalisme contemporain en Belgique. Cette période est en effet non seulement marquée par l’avènement d’un syndicalisme de masse, par l’intégration des syndicats dans des nouveaux systèmes de relations industrielles (reconnaissance généralisée des syndicats par le patronat et l’État comme interlocuteurs privilégiés dans la négociation du contrat de travail), par leur attribution à l’échelle nationale d’un rôle officiel dans la redistribution des secours étatiques de chômage, mais également par de profondes réformes des structures et des fonctionnements syndicaux (centralisation, concentration et rationalisation accrues).

Notre étude tente d’analyser comment et suivant quelles modalités les diverses composantes du mouvement syndical ont participé à ces transformations sociétales (y compris en ce qui concerne le nouveau rôle qu’elles y acquièrent) en même temps qu’elles se sont trouvées transformées par elles. Globalement, elle propose une évaluation des influences réciproques sur la construction du fait syndical belge :

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Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Bibliography: leaves 135-143. An anthropological analysis of an industrial dispute that occurred within the East Gippsland forest industry, 1997-1998 and how the workers strove to acheive better working conditions for themselves, and to share in the wealth they had created.

This thesis examines wage differentials between male and female faculty salaries at Western Kentucky University. A human capital model of salary determination is examined by using regression analysis on relevant personal and job characteristics of faculty members. A large portion of the wage gap between men and women is explained through differences in the personal and job characteristics. A portion of the wage gap remains unexplained, however, the probability of discrimination playing a substantial role in salary is very small.

L’objectif principal de ce mémoire est de vérifier l’effet modérateur du soutien social hors-travail sur la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et l’épuisement professionnel. Dans un deuxième temps, nous cherchons aussi à déterminer l’effet direct que peut entretenir chacune des variables sur le niveau d’épuisement professionnel. Pour nous aider à réaliser notre recherche nous avons utilisé des données secondaires provenant de l’Équipe de Recherche sur le Travail et la Santé Mentale, qui sont basées sur un échantillon de 410 travailleurs (civil et policier) du Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) atteint de décembre 2008 à février 2009. Les analyses multivariées réalisées ont révélé que plusieurs facteurs du travail ont une influence sur le niveau d’épuisement professionnel des employés du SPVM. En effet, l’utilisation des compétences, l’autorité décisionnelle et le soutien social au travail sont trois facteurs du travail qui agissent comme protecteur contre l’épuisement professionnel. À l’inverse, les demandes psychologiques, les demandes contractuelles (c’est-à-dire les horaires de travail irréguliers ou imprévisibles), la supervision abusive ainsi que le conflit travail-famille sont quatre autres facteurs du travail qui font augmenter significativement le niveau d’épuisement professionnel. De plus, nos résultats soutiennent que le fait de vivre en couple, de ne pas avoir d’enfant, de vivre un conflit famille-travail et d’avoir un score élevé au trait de personnalité amabilité sont tout autant de caractéristiques associées à un haut niveau d’épuisement professionnel.Parallèlement, les analyses multivariées n’ont pas permis de confirmer le lien modérateur du soutien social hors-travail sur la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et l’épuisement professionnel.
The main objective of this master thesis is to verify the moderating effect of social support outside of work on the relation between the work organization conditions and burnout. In a second time, we also try to determine the direct effect that each variable has on burnout. To help us achieve our research we used secondary data from l’Équipe de Recherche sur le Travail et la Santé Mentale, which are based on a sample of 410 employees (civilian and police) of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) consulted from December 2008 to February 2009. The completed multivariate analyses revealed that many work organization conditions impact the level of burnout of the SPVM employees. Indeed, skills utilization, decision authority and social support at work are three work organization conditions that help to prevent burnout. In contrast, psychological demands, contractual demands (i.e. irregular or unpredictable work schedule), abusive supervision and work to family conflict are four factors increasing the level of burnout. Moreover, our results show that living with a life partner, not having a child,living a family to work conflict and having a high score for the trait of personality related to agreeableness are related to a high level of burnout. In parallel, multivariate analyses did not confirm the moderating effect of social support outside of work on the relation between work organisation conditions and burnout.

Aucune loi internationale n’a su réagir à la fragmentation de la production transnationale jusqu’à présent pour protéger les travailleurs contre le travail forcé. En réponse à ce phénomène, le droit de la responsabilité sociale et le devoir de vigilance des entreprises se sont développés afin d'accroître l'imputabilité des entreprises transnationales envers les impacts sociaux de leurs activités tout particulièrement le long de leur chaîne de valeur. Jusqu'à récemment, le devoir de vigilance était surtout soutenu par des normes internationales à caractère volontaire et par l'autorégulation des entreprises (Kerr, Janda et Pitts, 2009). Depuis peu, quelques États ont légiféré afin d'augmenter la portée et l'efficacité du devoir de vigilance en ce qui concerne le respect des droits fondamentaux des travailleurs et la protection de l’environnement en France par le biais de « plan de vigilance » ou par rapport à l’élimination du travail forcé en Californie et au Royaume-Uni. Ces lois obligent les entreprises à produire des rapports expliquant les relations et les conditions de travail des ouvriers le long de la chaîne de valeur. En comparaison, au Canada, le devoir de vigilance s'appuie sur des développements jurisprudentiels dont la portée est incertaine (Drouin, 2016). Trois modèles d'encadrement de ce devoir émergent alors: un modèle jurisprudentiel et deux modèles législatifs. L’objectif de ce mémoire est d’évaluer le potentiel du devoir de vigilance à inciter les entreprises transnationales à mieux réparer l’utilisation du travail forcé dans leur chaîne de production pour les victimes. Les trois modèles d’encadrement qui seront analysés sont le modèle jurisprudentiel du Canada, le modèle législatif général de la France et le modèle législatif visant spécifiquement l’abolition du travail forcé de la Californie. Les questions auxquelles nous tenterons de répondre sont les suivantes : Le renforcement du devoir de vigilance permet-il de réparer l’utilisation du travail forcé dans les chaînes de production transnationales? Quels éléments permettent d’accroître l’accès à la réparation pour les victimes de travail forcé dans les chaînes de production transnationale?
International law concerning the use of forced labour in global production chains has yet to be enacted. In response to this phenomenon, corporate social responsibility law and the principle of due diligence have been developed to increase transnational businesses’ accountability towards the social impacts of their activities along the supply chain. Until recently, due diligence was mainly supported by voluntary international norms and by business’ selfregulation mechanism (Kerr, Janda and Pitts, 2009). A few States recently passed legislation that a increases the scope and the efficiency of due diligence. The efforts of France on the matter have focused on the respect of workers’ fundamental rights and of the environment while similar legislative endeavours in California and in the UK have concerned themselves with the specific issue of forced labour. In comparison, in Canada, due diligence is based on jurisprudential developments with an uncertain scope (Drouin, 2016). Three frameworks of due diligence emerge: two legislative models and one jurisprudential models. This thesis seeks to assess the potential of the duty of diligence principle in enticing transnational corporations to remedy the use of forced labour through their supply chains. Three models will be evaluated: the Canadian jurisprudential model, the French general legislative model and the Californian legislative model specifically targeting the abolition of forced labour. The questions we will seek to answer are the following: Does the enhancement of the duty of diligence enable victims of forced labour in transnational production chains to obtain remedies? What are the key elements promoting access to remedy for victims of forced labour in transnational production chains?

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 2002. Adviser: Steven Aragon. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-176) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4351. Adviser: Jan Nederveen Pieterse. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-201) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Man Chi-shing.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-205).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
List of Tables --- p.i.
Abstract --- p.ii.
摘要 --- p.iii.
Acknowledgement --- p.iv.
Chapter Chapter 1 --- Going into migrants in the Pearl River Delta --- p.1
Chapter I --- The living strategy besides political resistance --- p.2
Chapter II --- Exploring the migrants in township-and-village areas of the Pearl River Delta --- p.6
Chapter III --- Methodology --- p.9
Chapter IV --- Overview of this study --- p.13
Chapter V --- Terms clarification --- p.14
Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature review: understanding migrants in South China --- p.16
Chapter I --- Migration --- p.18
Chapter II --- Floating population in China after the economic reforms --- p.22
Chapter III --- Theoretical framework --- p.38
Chapter Chapter 3 --- A dichotomous community: the construction of oppressed and oppressor in Tianshen Township --- p.59
Chapter I --- Going down to the field site --- p.60
Chapter II --- Unequal relationships between the oppressed and the oppressor --- p.73
Chapter III --- Concluding remarks --- p.97
Chapter Chapter 4 --- "The voice from migrants: ""The outside world is splendid, but also ruthless.""" --- p.102
Chapter I --- Living experience --- p.103
Chapter II --- Working experience --- p.110
Chapter III --- Floating: a short stage of life --- p.117
Chapter IV --- Concluding remarks --- p.131
Chapter Chapter 5 --- Exit and familism: the ways to accommodate dissatisfaction --- p.135
Chapter I --- The infrequency of direct confrontation --- p.136
Chapter II --- Job switching as a from of self-defense --- p.140
Chapter III --- The significance of family support --- p.148
Chapter IV --- A case study: the entanglement between survival and exploitation --- p.157
Chapter V --- Concluding remarks --- p.163
Chapter Chapter 6 --- Economic retreatism: the basic reason of the social stability in the Pearl River Delta --- p.168
Chapter I --- A comparison with Scott's and Popkin's cases --- p.169
Chapter II --- A supplement to previous studies concerning Chinese migrant workers --- p.180
Chapter III --- Suggestions --- p.182
Chapter IV --- Prediction --- p.184
Chapter V --- IEpilogue --- p.185
Appendix A: List of Interviewees --- p.189
Appendix B: Photos --- p.190
Appendix C : Cartoon --- p.195
Appendix D: Map --- p.197
Bibliography --- p.198

The recent growth of self-employment (trabajo por cuenta propia ) in Cuba has expanded opportunities for employment, income, professional development, and the provision of goods and services, while simultaneously increasing individual economic autonomy and exacerbating socioeconomic inequalities. Through a review of the existing legislation that regulates self-employment, supplemented by a series of 64 in-depth interviews with self-employed workers in the food service, transportation, and housing sectors of Havana's economy, this study seeks to understand the present role and future prospects for Cuba's self-employed workers by asking the following questions: First, do self-employed workers (cuentapropistas) believe that they are beginning to lay the necessary groundwork for the eventual establishment of a small, private business sector. Second, how do self-employed workers currently respond to the existing legal and fiscal framework for micro-enterprise in Cuba? Third, how does work as a licensed self-employed worker differ socioeconomically from unlicensed, clandestine economic activity in the same three sectors? The hypothesis is that (1) current restrictions make impossible job creation or income generation significant enough to facilitate the emergence of small- and medium-sized enterprises, and that (2) government regulations discourage the growth of micro-enterprises, without declaring them illegal. However, (3) self-employed workers will continue to respond to current prohibitive government restrictions either by 'hedging' on their licenses (underreporting their incomes and engaging in economic activities not included in their license) or by 'informalizing' their private operations (operating underground without a license), not by ceasing to practice them The dissertation argues that the current legal framework discourages the growth of licensed micro-enterprises, drives many entrepreneurs out of business or underground, provokes tax evasion, and encourages operators to develop deeper links with the informal sector. A small number of large-scale operations tend to thrive, while the majority of micro-enterprises are condemned to informality (clandestine operation). Permitting the hiring of employees, extending enterprise rights to currently prohibited areas and markets, allowing for the deduction of one's actual expenses, and ending the monthly quota tax would have the positive effect of increasing competition, productivity, tax revenue, and legal employment, while simultaneously reducing prices, exaggerated incomes, tax evasion, and clandestine economic activity
acase@tulane.edu

This study looked at the influence of cartoons as primes for stereotypes about women in the workplace. Three sets of cartoons (neutral animal, non-agentic women, and feminists) were used and subjects were exposed to just one set based on their assigned condition. After rating the funniness of the cartoons, subjects read about ambiguous behaviors recorded by a supervisor about a social worker. Subjects evaluated the social worker on both performance issues and personal traits. Subjects then read additional information and rated the supervisor. The gender of the social worker and supervisor were manipulated. Three general performance measures and five traits, identified in a pilot study, were analyzed. Priming did occur but inconsistently across the measures. Some interesting patterns representing contrast effects for males in the feminist cartoon condition and females in the non-agentic condition surfaced. The gender composition of the subordinate-supervisor dyad contributed to the priming effect for some measure.

This case study is specifically concerned with the implementation and impact of the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act (Bill 29-2002) upon unions and the workers who deliver health care services in one health authority in British Columbia. The Act eliminated or reduced a number of union roles, and workers’ rights and benefits previously achieved through decades of collective bargaining. Qualitative, face-to-face interviews with four health care union leaders or designates combined with documentary analysis and literature reviewed were the methods employed to collect data. This study documents four major findings: 1. The legislation impacted all workers facing programme and facility closures but in particular support workers, mainly women, who were contracted out who also lost pay equity gains established through collective bargaining; 2. Amidst the government ideology and dogma of the public policy shift with contracting out there were initial reports of organizational impacts in health facilities with reduced morale, increased workload, a division between workers and reduced quality of service to patients and residents; 3. Unions experienced legislative interference in their role and described this as “union busting” in neo-liberal times of health care restructuring; 4. Unions employed several democratic mechanisms to resist and forged alliances to strengthen their resistance.

L'objectif principal de ce mémoire est d'évaluer le rôle modérateur de trois traits de personnalité, soit l'estime de soi, le sentiment de cohésion, ainsi que le centre de contrôle interne sur la relation entre les conditions de l'organisation du travail et la consommation d'alcool à risque, ainsi que la consommation de médicaments psychotropes des travailleurs canadiens. Les données sur lesquelles nous nous sommes basés proviennent de l'Enquête Nationale sur la Santé de la Population (ENSP) de Statistique Canada. Celle-ci a été conduite à des intervalles de deux ans, de l’année 1994 jusqu'à l’année 2003, et comprend ainsi cinq cycles longitudinaux. Les analyses multiniveaux que nous avons effectuées nous ont permises d’identifier cinq variables des conditions de l'organisation du travail qui s’associent de manière significative à la consommation d'alcool à risque, soit l’utilisation des compétences qui augmente de 7% le risque de faire partie du groupe de consommation d’alcool à risque par un travailleur, les demandes psychologiques qui augmentent ce risque de 69%, et les travailleurs confrontés à un horaire de travail irrégulier qui consomment 61% plus d’alcool à risque que les travailleurs qui ont un horaire de travail régulier. Inversement, l’insécurité d’emploi réduit de 12% le risque de faire partie du groupe de consommation d’alcool à risque, et les travailleurs bénéficiant d’un soutien social au travail courent 5% moins de risque de consommation d’alcool à risque. Pour ce qui est des médicaments psychotropes, nos analyses multiniveaux nous ont permises d’identifier deux variables des conditions de l’organisation du travail qui y sont associées de manière significative. Il s’agit de l’utilisation des compétences qui augmente de 8% le risque de faire partie du groupe de consommation de médicaments psychotropes, alors que le nombre d’heures travaillées diminue de 1% ce risque. En ce qui concerne les traits de personnalité, l’estime de soi augmente de 17% le risque de consommation d’alcool à risque, alors que le sentiment de cohésion diminue de 1% ce risque. L’estime de soi joue un rôle modérateur faible entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et la consommation d’alcool à risque, puisque celle-ci diminue de 3% l’effet pathogène des demandes physiques imposées sur les travailleurs sur leur consommation d’alcool à risque. Pour ce qui est des médicaments psychotropes, nos résultats indiquent que l’estime de soi diminue de 4% le risque de consommation de médicaments psychotropes, le centre de contrôle interne diminue de 9% ce risque, et le sentiment de cohésion quant à lui, diminue ce risque de 3%. D’ailleurs, aucun trait de personnalité ne joue un rôle modérateur entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et la consommation de médicaments psychotropes.
The main objective of this master's thesis is to determine the moderator effect of personality traits (self esteem, sens of cohesion, sens of control) on the relationship between work organization conditions, and risky alcohol consumption, as well as psychotropic medication consumption by canadian workers. In order to conduct our project, we relied on data that came from five cycles of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS). This survery was conducted at a two year interval, spanning from the year 1994 until 2003, and includes five longitudinal cycles. The multilevel analyis we performed, allowed us to identify five work organization conditions that increase the risk of risky alcohol consumption.Skill utilisation increases by 7% the risk of being part of a risky alcohol consumption group, while psychological demands increase risky alcohol consumption by 69%, and workers confronted to an irregular work schedule consume 61% more risky alcohol. However, job insecurity decerases by 12% the risk of being part of a risky alcohol consumption group, and workers that enjoy social support at work have a 5% lesser risk of being part of a risky alcohol consumption group. As for psychotropic medications consumption, our multilevel analysis allowed us to identify two work organization conditions that are associated in a significant manner to the psychotropic medication consumption. Skill utilisation at work increases by 8% the risk of being part of a pscyhotropic medication consumption group, while the number of hours worked decreases by 1% the risk of being part of a psychotropic medication consumption group. As for personnality traits, our results indicate that self esteem increases by 17% the risk of risky alcohol consumption, while sense of cohesion decreases by 1% this risk. In addition, self esteem plays a moderator role by diminuishing by 3% the pathologic impact of physical demands at work on risky alcohol consumption. Concerning psychotropic medications consumption, our results indicate that self esteem diminuishes by 4% the risk of psychotropic medications consumption, sense of control diminuishes by 9% the risk of psychotropic medications consumption, and sense of cohesion diminuishes by 3% this risk. In addition, none of the personnality traits plays a moderator role between work’s organization’s conditions and psychotropic medications consumption.

Based on my rejection of the social relations/personal relations dichotomy and on information obtained in field work done from 1993 to 1995 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, I describe and analyze the way in which social actors form microgroups or networks of social relations made up of the dyadic relations they form with other individuals. These networks, in turn, are the basic components of social groups, or networks of networks After discussing the nature of and determining the personal ties which link a small business entrepreneur to other members of his personal ego network, I extend this analysis to include the personal networks of each member of ego's network. These eight additional networks bring the total number of relationships among 59 other small business entrepreneurs to the 91 dyads which they have formed among themselves. I show how the creation, preservation and modification of these relationships correspond to the successively broader geographical, social and historical contexts in which they are immersed, especially the immediate context of the Mexican-U.S. border, as well as the industrialization process in Mexico and official development policies for the border from World War II till the present On the way to proving the relevance of the hypothetical presuppositions in this study, I obtained certain important results: (a) I conceived, applied and proved the utility of a procedure for studying the social behavior and social personalities of specific actors; (b) I designed and applied a dynamic analytical model for studying personal relations from a sociological point of view, rather than from the traditional psychological perspective; (c) I sketched the basic elements of a sociological theory of personal relations; and (d) I suggested a research agenda which would allow me to complete the theory and refine the ideal procedures for testing it
acase@tulane.edu

'Ordem e Civilizacao: The Modernization of Brazilian Naval Yards in the Nineteenth Century,' is a socio-economic history of modernization. The revolution in the art of naval warfare changed centuries-old, construction techniques forever as modern warships utilized iron-siding and steam engines after mid-century. This dissertation analyzes the consequences associated with the adaptation of new technologies to nineteenth-century shipbuilding in the state-run naval yards Constructing modern warships forced the state to educate lower-class youths who subsequently built and maintained them. Established throughout the empire, various schools taught sailors, gunners, artisans, and mechanics their trade. Naval yard workers and sailors who obtained a vocational education eventually forced the imperial government to improve their social status in the navy or lose them to private industry. After mid-century, the state reformed the naval penal code, lessening the number of offenses that received corporal punishment. By 1857, mechanics received direct commissions after ten years of service, and by 1872, the imperial government set up a retirement and disability pension for most of its 4,000 naval yard workers In Brazil's slave-based society, the 'place' for a working class, apart from slave labor, always had been ill-defined. Prior to improving the lot of the working class, the imperial government attempted to define their separate status by differentiating slave labor from free labor and unskilled from skilled labor. After this attempt failed, the imperial government initially relied upon foreign workers, but soon realized that it could not afford their high salary demands. Consequently, the imperial government sought to educate underprivileged youths, turning them into a more productive working class that benefitted the state as well as themselves. The naval yards offer the best example of the Brazilian Empire's concept of 'order and civilization' as education brought discipline, respectability, and limited social mobility to the Brazilian lower classes
acase@tulane.edu

Ce mémoire vise à retracer les carrières des escortes indépendantes montréalaises et les tensions qui les traversent, afin de rendre compte de la complexité du « drame social » que constitue cette activité. Nos résultats montrent que cette profession présente de nombreuses similarités avec d’autres professions, en même temps que sa position particulière dans une matrice sociale stigmatisante et dans une relation de service intime lui confère toute sa singularité. Partie de la question « Comment commence-t-on et poursuit-on dans l’activité d’escorte, alors que celle-ci est stigmatisée ? », nous avons réalisé une enquête de terrain auprès d’escortes indépendantes, composée essentiellement de sept entrevues approfondies et de l’observation de leur environnement professionnel informatisé. Nous avons décidé de nous écarter du débat actuel, tant scientifique que militant, qui divise sur le sujet du travail du sexe. Notre cadre conceptuel est, dans un perspective interactionniste, à la croisée des sociologies des professions, de la déviance et du stigmate. Nous rendons compte de nos résultats sous la forme de quatre actes, afin de poursuivre la métaphore théâtrale engagée par Hughes, qui suivent les étapes d’une carrière d’escorte et qui mettent l’accent sur leur complexité intrinsèque. Ces étapes sont ancrées dans une ambivalence entre un effort de professionnalisation de leur pratique et une tentative de rester dans la norme en se distanciant de cette activité. Cette ambivalence, causée par la matrice sociale dans laquelle évoluent ces escortes et à l’intimité des relations de service, contribue à la pérennité de la stigmatisation de cette activité.
This master’s thesis aims to recount the careers of Montreal independent escorts and the tensions they encountered to expose the complexity of the "social drama" of this occupation. Our results show how the profession of escort presents numerous similarities with other professions while having a particular position on a stigmatizing social matrix and being characterised by an intimate relation of service that confers it its peculiarity. The question: "how do we begin and pursue the escorting occupation despite its propensity for stigmatization?" as a starting point, we carried out a field survey with independent escorts. Seven in-depth interviews were conducted and their computerized professional environment was observed. We decided to stay away from the current scientific and militant debate on sex work. Our theoretical frame is a fine balance between the sociologies of the professions, deviance and stigma, in an interactionist perspective. We report our results in four acts to pursue the theatrical metaphor brought by Hughes. The acts retrace the stages of the escorting career and emphasize on their intrinsic complexity. The escorts are caught in an ambivalence between an effort of professionalization of their occupation and an attempt to stay in the norm by distance themselves from this practice. This ambivalence is caused by the stigmatization that characterizes the social matrix where the escorts evolve and by the intimacy of their professional relationship. It contributes to a certain extent to the continued stigmatization of their own occupation.

L’objectif principal de ce mémoire est de vérifier l’effet modérateur de la situation familiale sur la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et la détresse psychologique dans la main d’œuvre canadienne. De façon secondaire, nous nous intéressons également à l’effet direct que peut entretenir chacune des variables sur le risque de rapporter de la détresse psychologique. Pour nous aider à réaliser cette étude, les données provenant de l’Enquête sur la santé des collectivités canadiennes (ESCC) volet 2.1 par Statistique Canada ont été utilisées. Les analyses multivariées réalisées ont révélé que l’horaire irrégulier de travail était significativement associé au risque de vivre de la détresse psychologique. Par rapport à la situation familiale, nous observons que l’état civil soit le fait d’être en couple agit en tant que facteur de protection contre la détresse psychologique tandis que la suffisance du revenu augmente le risque de rapporter de la détresse psychologique. De plus, les résultats obtenus soutiennent partiellement un effet modérateur de la situation familiale, car seul le statut économique du ménage modifie la relation entre l’autorité décisionnelle et les demandes physiques au travail dans l’explication de la détresse psychologique. Ainsi, ces deux facteurs du travail augmenteraient le risque de développer de la détresse psychologique lorsque le statut économique est pris en compte. Par conséquent, l’effet de certaines conditions de l’organisation du travail tend à influer différemment la détresse psychologique selon la situation économique du ménage.
The main objective of this thesis is to verify the moderating effects of the family situation on the relationship between work organization conditions and psychological distress in the Canadian workforce. As a secondary element, the thesis looks at the direct effect that each variable can add to psychological distress. To complete this study, data from Statistics Canada’s ‘Canadian Community Health Survey’ (CCHS), cycle 2.2, was used. The completed multivariable analyses demonstrated that an irregular work schedule was associated with the risk of experiencing psychological distress. In terms of family situation, we conclude that being in a couple acts as a protective factor against psychological distress. In addition, income sufficiency increases the risk of psychological distress. Moreover, the results partly show a moderating effect of the family situation, as only household economic status modifies the relationship between decision-making authority and physical exertion at work in explaining psychological distress. As such, these two workplace factors increase the risk of developing psychological distress when economic status is taken into account. As a consequence, the effects of certain workplace organization conditions influence psychological distress differently depending on the household’s economic situation.

Au cours de la dernière décennie, les changements observés sur le marché amènent les organisations à améliorer leurs conditions de travail afin d’être en mesure d’attirer et de retenir des travailleurs performants. Les PRH n’y font pas exception. En effet, les PRH présentent des attentes bien précises et développent un contrat psychologique qui leur est propre. Cette recherche porte sur l’intention de quitter des PRH. Plus précisément, elle vise à identifier à travers la théorie du contrat psychologique, les conditions d’emploi et d’exercice de la profession qui, lorsqu’elles ne sont pas respectées, influencent positivement l’intention de quitter des PRH. Il ressort de nos analyses statistiques que la violation du contrat psychologique, notamment des conditions d’emploi et des conditions d’exercice de la profession, influence positivement l’intention de quitter des PRH. Nos analyses nous ont permis d’identifier les différentes conditions d’emploi et d’exercice de la profession qui ont une influence sur l’intention de quitter des PRH. En ce qui concerne les conditions d’emploi, il s’agit de celles reliées au développement de carrière, à l’atmosphère au travail et au contenu de l’emploi. Du côté des conditions d’exercice de la profession, il s’agit du rôle d’agent de changement et de partenaires d’affaires qui ont une influence positive, tandis que le rôle d’expert fonctionnel influence négativement les intentions de quitter des PRH. Nos analyses mettent en évidence l’importance du respect des conditions d’emploi comparativement à celles associées aux conditions d’exercice de la profession. En effet, on constate que les trois conditions d’emploi qui ont une influence positive sur les intentions de quitter des PRH peuvent, sans contredit, être associées au développement professionnel, une valeur importante chez les PRH.
During the last decade, many changes have been observed in the labor markets which have lead organizations to review their work conditions. By improving the work environment, organizations have been able to attract and retain good workers. Human resource professionals (HRP) are not an exception. Indeed, HRP have specific expectations, they also develop their own psychological contract. This research attempts to understand the intent to quit of a HRP. Specifically, this research seeks to identify the conditions of employment and of professional practice through the theory of psychological contracts. When these conditions are not met, they positively influence the intent to quit of a HRP. According to our statistical analyses, psychological contract breach of the conditions of employment and of the conditions of professional practice positively influences the intent to quit of a HRP. More specifically, the conditions of employment which influence the intent to quit of a HRP are related to career development, social atmosphere and job content. Moreover, the role of a change agent and a strategic partner are the conditions of professional practice that influence negatively the intent to quit of a HRP. However, the role of an administrative expert influences positively the intent to quit of a HRP. Finally, our analysis highlights the importance of respecting the conditions of employment compared to those associated to the conditions of professional practice. Indeed, we find that the breach of three conditions of employment that have a positive influence on the intent to quit of a PRH can be associated to career development, which is a value that is more and more important for a PRH in current times.

L’objectif principal de ce mémoire est d’approfondir l’état des connaissances au niveau des explications sociales des problèmes de santé mentale au sein de la main-d’œuvre. Il porte plus particulièrement sur le rôle médiateur du conflit travail-famille dans la séquence causale entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et le développement des symptômes dépressifs. Les analyses nécessaires pour cette étude ont été effectuées à partir de données issues de l’enquête SALVEO qui portait sur les déterminants de la santé mentale au travail dans la population canadienne. Les analyses de cheminement de causalité multiniveaux ont révélé que le conflit travail-famille était significativement associé aux symptômes dépressifs. Cependant, les résultats ne permettaient pas de conclure que l’effet de toutes les conditions de l’organisation du travail était totalement médiatisé par le conflit travail-famille. Les résultats issus d’une démarche exploratoire indiquent néanmoins que certaines associations entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et les symptômes dépressifs sont complètement médiatisées, que certaines sont partiellement médiatisées et que certaines sont associées directement avec les symptômes dépressifs. L’effet des demandes psychologiques, des heures de travail, de l’horaire de travail, du soutien des collègues et du revenu professionnel est complètement capturé par le conflit travail-famille. L’association entre l’insécurité d’emploi et les symptômes dépressifs est plutôt médiatisée partiellement. C'est-à-dire qu’une partie de l’effet de cette condition de travail agit directement sur les symptômes dépressifs, tandis qu’une partie de l’effet est indirect et passe par le conflit travail-famille. Par conséquent, ces résultats invitent les recherches futures ainsi que les interventions en entreprise à considérer le rôle central et complexe du conflit travail-famille dans la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et les symptômes dépressifs.
The main objective of this master’s thesis is to advance the state of knowledge in social explanations of mental health problems in the workforce. It focuses on the mediating effect of work-family conflict in a causal sequence between the conditions of work organization and the development of depressive symptoms. The statistical analyses required for this study were performed using data from the SALVEO’s survey on determinants of mental health in the Canadian population. Multilevel path analysis supported that work-family conflict relate significantly with more depressive symptoms. However, the results did not suggest that work-family conflict fully mediated the relation between work organization conditions and depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, in an exploratory approach, some associations between the work organization conditions and depressive symptoms were completely mediated, some were partially mediated and some were only associated with depressive symptoms. Psychological demands, hours worked, work schedule, coworkers support and professional income were fully mediated by work-family conflict. Furthermore, work-family conflict partially mediated the relationship between job insecurity and depressive symptoms. Part of the effect of job insecurity was direct, while part of the effect was indirect through work-family conflicts. Therefore, these findings suggest that future researches and organizational interventions need a more complete understanding of the relationship between work organization and depressive symptoms, which can be achieved if work-family conflict is considered as a mediator in this dynamic.

L’objectif de ce mémoire est d’examiner les nombreuses associations qui existent entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail, les traits de personnalité et la détresse psychologique au travail. La question de recherche principale était : est-ce que les cinq grands traits de personnalité (Big Five personality traits) ont un effet modérateur sur la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et la détresse psychologique. De nombreuses autres questions ont aussi été considérées. Pour répondre aux vingt-et-une hypothèses proposées dans cette recherche, nous avons utilisé des données secondaires d’une étude transversale de 395 employés d’un service de police municipal. À la suite d’analyses multivariées, nous avons pu observer quatre associations significatives. Concernant les conditions de l’organisation du travail, nous avons trouvé que les demandes psychologiques en milieu de travail augment la détresse psychologique, tandis que le support d’un superviseur la diminue. En ce qui concerne, les traits de personnalité, nous avons trouvé qu’être névrotique (neuroticism) augmente la détresse psychologique. Finalement, nous avons trouvé un effet modérateur du trait de personnalité, être consciencieux (conscientiousness), sur la relation entre les demandes psychologiques et la détresse psychologique. Bref, nos résultats nous indiquent que les cinq grands traits de personnalité (Big Five personality traits) ont une influence mitigée sur la santé mentale en milieu de travail.
The current thesis sought to observe the multiple relationships that exist between work organization conditions, personality characteristics and psychological distress in the workplace. The main question of interest was whether the Big Five personality traits have a moderating effect on the relationship between work organization and psychological distress, but numerous other questions of interest were also considered. In order to address the twenty-one hypotheses proposed in this study, secondary data was used from a cross-sectional survey of 395 workers from a municipal police service. Multivariate analyses showed four significant relationships between the three variables of interest. With regards to the work organization conditions, it was found that psychological demands in the workplace increase psychological distress, whereas, support from a supervisor decreases psychological distress. With regards to personality, neuroticism was found to increase psychological distress. Finally, a moderating relationship was found for the conscientiousness trait on the relationship between psychological demands and psychological distress. Globally, the results indicate that the Big Five personality traits have a mitigated impact on mental health problems in the workplace.

Trade unions have been in existence for many years. Although their introduction was generally met with resistance, since their establishment trade unions have been important agents of social change worldwide. Over the years, trade unions have been involved in politics and other societal activities. In South Africa, trade unions for many years not only fought for worker’s rights within the workplace but also beyond the workplace. Trade unions started as friendly societies aimed at assisting their members with various matters, including offering financial help for education purposes and also in cases of illnesses. Although the main purpose of trade unions is to regulate relations between employees and their employers, trade unions perform other functions in society which can be broadly referred to as their social responsibility role. Unlike corporate social responsibility, which is recognised and formalised, trade union social responsibility is not, with the role and importance of social responsibility for trade unions having been largely ignored. This thesis aims at changing this by investigating their core responsibilities and their social responsibilities and subsequently making recommendations on how trade unions could recognise and accommodate their social responsibilities in their activities. It also considers factors that could assist trade unions in fulfilling their social responsibilities. Trade unions generally obtain legislative support for their core responsibilities, but not their social responsibilities; however this should not obstruct trade unions in such endeavours. As modern organisations it is high time that trade unions make a contribution towards sustainable development through their social responsibility role.
Private Law
LLD

Cette thèse porte sur l’exploration des facteurs d’influence et des déterminants qui peuvent décrire et expliquer le comportement d’une entreprise multinationale lors d’un licenciement collectif pour fermeture d’usine mesuré à l’aune de l’idée de responsabilité sociale. Nous prenons pour base les conséquences sociales et économiques néfastes des licenciements collectifs sur les employés et les communautés ainsi que la faiblesse à cet égard du droit du travail québécois. De plus, nous établissons le lien entre la nature de la responsabilité sociale d’un point de vue théorique et la perspective empirique dans le cadre d’un processus de licenciement collectif. Pour arriver à cette fin, au niveau théorique, c’est à travers les critères éthiques de Garrett et Klonoski (1986) soit la juste cause, la minimisation des effets dommageables et la justice procédurale, que notre recherche a démontré qu’il était possible de déterminer de la responsabilité sociale d’une entreprise d’un point de vue empirique dans un contexte de licenciement collectif. Nous avons aussi regardé de près les différentes théories de la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise pour finalement retenir une théorie instrumentale des parties-prenantes. Au plan méthodologique, nous avons utilisé une étude de cas unique soit celle de la fermeture partielle de l’usine de Rio Tinto Alcan située à Beauharnois au Québec. De plus, il a été possible de catégoriser l’approche adoptée par cette entreprise sous une taxonomie théorique de la responsabilité sociale, c’est donc une approche intégrative à deux niveaux : local et corporatif qui ressort de notre analyse. Au niveau local, nous avons identifié une perspective éthique reliée aux valeurs personnelles des individus devant mettre en place les mécanismes. Au niveau corporatif, c’est davantage une perspective instrumentale qui ressort. En ce sens, la multinationale estime devoir rendre des comptes à la fois à ses actionnaires et aux financiers afin d’établir une légitimité nécessaire ainsi qu’au politique (entre autre municipal et provincial) afin d’avoir accès aux ressources convoitées et nécessaires à son exploitation, de là l’importance de son image corporative. Le type d’entreprise doit être pris en considération, dans le secteur des ressources naturelles, le rôle et l’implication du politique s’avère central car il permet un accès aux ressources, essentiels à la survie de l’entreprise. L’apport de cette recherche se retrouve principalement dans l’étude du concept de responsabilité sociale à travers un phénomène important pour les relations industrielles soit celui des licenciements collectifs. Elle élargie aussi le champ théorique habituelle des relations industrielles en prenant en compte un cadre de la responsabilité sociale qui permet d’étudier des phénomènes sous un nouvel angle qui tient compte des priorités actuelles des multinationales dans un contexte d’ouverture des marchés et de recherche de légitimité.
This thesis deals with the examination of the elements of influence and decision-making that can describe and explain the behaviour of a multinational firm, during a mass layoff brought about by a plant closure, as measured using the concept of social responsibility. We take as a starting point the nefarious social and economic consequences of mass layoffs on employees and communities as well as the shortcomings of Quebec labour legislation in this regard. Moreover, we establish the link between the nature of social responsibility from a theoretical point of view and the empirical perspective within the framework of a mass layoff process. To arrive at this conclusion, at a theoretical level, through the ethical criteria defined by Garrett and Klonoski (1986), that is, just cause, mitigation of damages and procedural justice, our research has demonstrated that it is possible to determine the social responsibility of a firm from an empirical point of view within the context of a mass layoff. We have also closely examined various theories describing a firm’s social responsibility before finally adopting an instrumental theory of stakeholders. At the methodological level, we relied upon a single case study, that of the partial closure of the Rio Tinto Alcan plant located in Beauharnois, Quebec. Moreover, it was possible to categorize the approach adopted by this firm under a theoretical taxonomy of social responsibility, thus producing an integrative approach on two levels, local and corporate, derived from our analysis. At the local level, we identified an ethical perspective related to the personal values of the individuals charged with implementing the necessary mechanisms. At the corporate level, an instrumentalist perspective takes precedence. In this sense, to establish the necessary legitimacy, the multinational firm considers itself accountable to both its shareholders and its financiers as well as to the political level (among them municipal and provincial) in order to have access to the resources it both desires and requires for its operations, from which flows the importance of its corporate image. In the natural resources sector, the type of firm must be taken into account, the role and involvement of the political level being of central importance, given that it allows access to the resources that are essential to the survival of the firm. The contribution of this research lies mainly in the study of the concept of social responsibility through a significant phenomenon in labour relations, that of mass layoffs. This study also expands the usual theoretical domain of labour relations by taking into account a social responsibility framework that allows for the examination of phenomena through a new angle that reflects the current priorities of multinationals within a context of market openness and the search for legitimacy.

Ce mémoire est rédigé dans le cadre d’une recherche multidisciplinaire visant à développer de meilleurs outils d’intervention et politiques en santé mentale au travail. L’objectif principal de cette étude était de cibler les déterminants de l’épuisement professionnel et des troubles musculosquelettiques et leur cooccurrence chez une population policière. Un échantillon de 410 policiers du Service de Police de Montréal (SPVM) a été sondé à l’aide d’un questionnaire basé sur des outils standardisés en santé mentale au travail. Les conditions organisationnelles, variables indépendantes de cette étude, ont été identifiées à partir de modèles théoriques validés. L’analyse segmentée de chacun des grands concepts (latitude décisionnelle, soutien social au travail, demandes, justice distributive et sur engagement) révèle que l’effet des conditions organisationnelles ne se manifeste pas également sur chacune des trois dimensions de l’épuisement professionnel (l’épuisement émotionnel, le cynisme et l’efficacité professionnelle). De plus, on observe que les trois formes de récompenses de justice distributive tirées du modèle « Déséquilibre-Efforts-Récompenses » (Siegrist, 1996) ne sont pas distribuées également selon les dimensions de l’épuisement professionnel. Selon nos données, la justice distributive d’estime de soi et le sur engagement s’avèrent significatifs dans tous les cas en regard des dimensions de l’épuisement professionnel et de son indice global. Finalement, nos résultats révèlent que la justice distributive d’estime de soi a un lien significatif sur la cooccurrence de l’épuisement professionnel et des troubles musculosquelettiques. Par contre, on note que des outils de recherche plus spécifiques permettraient une analyse approfondie de l’effet des conditions organisationnelles sur les troubles musculosquelettiques et sur l’effet de cooccurrence entre les deux problèmes à l’étude.
This thesis was written in the scope of a multidisciplinary research aiming to develop better intervention tools and policies for management of mental health in the workplace. The main objective was to identify the determining factors of burnout, musculoskeletal disorders, and their associated comorbidity within a population of police officers. Four hundred and ten officers from the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) were interrogated using a questionnaire based on standard tools in work-related mental health research. The organizational conditions (main independent variables for this study) were derived from validated theoretical models. The data analysis consists of a segmented approach that looks at the effect of each concept (decisional latitude, social support, demands, rewards, and overcommitment). This revealed that the effects of organizational conditions were unevenly distributed among the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, cynicism and personal accomplishment). Moreover, it was observed that three different types of rewards described in the “Effort-Reward Imbalance Model” (Siegrist, 1996) also had uneven effects on the likelihood of burnout. According to our data, self-esteem rewards and the overcommitment phenomenon had the most significant impact on each of the three dimension of burnout and on its global index. Finally, our results show that self-esteem rewards are significantly related to the comorbidity of musculoskeletal disorders and burnout. However, we note that more specific research tools would enable further analysis of the effect of organizational conditions on musculoskeletal disorders and more detailed explanation of the comorbidity relationship between the two disorders.

L’objectif principal de ce mémoire est de déterminer l’effet modérateur des évènements stressants subis lors de l’enfance sur la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et le niveau de détresse psychologique vécue par les policiers et les employés de bureau de la ville de Montréal (SPVM). Les objectifs secondaires sont de déterminer le rôle direct des conditions de l’organisation du travail et des évènements stressants subis lors de l’enfance sur le niveau de détresse psychologique de cette population. Des données secondaires découlant d’une enquête réalisée auprès de 410 employés du SPVM nous ont permis de réaliser cette étude et de faire les analyses statistiques nécessaires. Cette recherche nous a permis de déceler quelques facteurs pouvant influencer le niveau de détresse psychologique des employés du SPVM. Entre autres, les résultats nous indiquent un niveau de détresse psychologique assez faible pour notre échantillon. De plus, ceux-ci nous démontrent que parmi les conditions de l’organisation du travail, deux variables indépendantes sont associées à une variation du niveau de détresse psychologique, c’est-à-dire les demandes psychologiques et le soutien social des superviseurs. En effet, les demandes psychologiques font augmenter le niveau de détresse psychologique, tandis que le soutien des superviseurs le fait diminuer. De plus, nos résultats soutiennent que le fait d’être un homme, de vivre en couple, de ne pas subir de tensions avec son enfant et son conjoint, de pratiquer des activités physiques, de ne pas consommer de tabac et de posséder un centre de contrôle interne sont associés à un faible niveau de détresse psychologique. Parallèlement, cette étude nous a permis d’avoir une compréhension plus exhaustive du rôle spécifique des évènements de vie stressants vécus lors de l’enfance en ce qui concerne la détresse psychologique vécue en milieu de travail. Ainsi, nos analyses multivariées nous ont permis d’identifier le fait qu’il n’y avait pas présence d’un effet modérateur des évènements stressants subis lors de l’enfance sur la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et le niveau de détresse psychologique. Pour ce qui est de la relation des évènements stressants subis lors de l’enfance sur le niveau de détresse psychologique, aucun lien n’a été décelé lors des analyses.
The main objective of this master thesis was to verify the moderating effects of stressful life events from childhood on the relation between the work organization’s conditions and the level of psychological distress lived by workers from the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). As a secondary objective, this thesis determined the direct effect of work organization conditions on the level of psychological distress. To complete this study, data from an investigation of 410 SPVM workers was used. This thesis demonstrated a low level of distress in this population. Also, the completed multilevel analysis confirmed that psychological demands and social support from the superiors were associated at the level of psychological distress. In fact, psychological demands contribute to increase it and the social support from the superior decrease the level of psychological distress. In addition, our results indicate that distress is to be less pronounced among men, couples, life habits (physical activities and no tobacco use),no tensions with children, no tensions with the spouse and the personality trait sense of control. Finally, this thesis hasn’t found any moderating effects of the children’s stressful life events on the relation between the work organization’s conditions and the level of psychological distress. Moreover, the multilevel analyses haven’t demonstrated the direct effect of children’s stressful life events psychological on the level of psychological distress.

Cette recherche vise à apporter un éclairage sur les facteurs déterminants de la concertation économique. De manière spécifique, elle poursuit trois principaux objectifs. Premièrement, nous cherchons à définir la notion de dialogue social et les termes qui y sont généralement associés tels que la concertation, la consultation, le tripartisme, le partenariat, la négociation collective, etc. Deuxièmement, nous faisons le point sur l’État du dialogue social au Québec, notamment en décrivant son évolution historique, les acteurs impliqués, les objets abordés et les instances de dialogue. Certaines comparaisons entre la culture québécoise de concertation et celles caractérisant d’autres cultures (Canada, États-Unis, Europe) sont par ailleurs présentées. De plus, ce tour d’horizon des différents lieux de dialogue social permettra de mieux saisir les composantes de la concertation en lien avec le développement économique, plus particulièrement, sur les façons de planifier le développement économique d’une manière socialement responsable (Papadakis, 2010). Troisièmement, une analyse empirique des facteurs déterminants de la concertation économique est effectuée. Pour atteindre les objectifs et répondre à notre question de recherche, nous articulons cette recherche en deux phases. Dans un premier temps, une cartographie des instances de dialogue social au Québec et la collecte de données auprès d’instances québécoises sont établies. Cette première phase permet également d’identifier quels sont les facteurs déterminants de la concertation économique généralement reconnus au sein de la littérature. Afin de mieux saisir ces facteurs et par conséquent, bonifier le modèle d’analyse, l’étude s’appuie sur une série d’entretiens exploratoires réalisés au Québec, mais aussi en France où la culture de dialogue social économique semble plus développée. Ce mouvement itératif entre la littérature et les entretiens exploratoires effectués permet de construire un modèle d’analyse des facteurs déterminants de la concertation économique. Dans un second temps, ce modèle d’analyse est testé en se concentrant sur deux organismes de concertation économique au Québec. Au sein de ces organismes ont été rencontrés des acteurs syndicaux, patronaux et gouvernementaux. L’entretien a été retenu comme la méthode de collecte de données utilisée auprès des individus (Gavard-Perret, Gotteland, Haon et Jolibert, 2008) et plus spécifiquement, des entretiens semi-directifs auprès des répondants afin de leur laisser la liberté de s’exprimer de façon plus large sur les questions et possiblement apporter de nouveaux éléments pouvant enrichir le modèle. La méthode de l’appariement logique sert à analyser les réponses aux questionnaires d’entrevues (Yin, 1994) et à les comparer aux propositions de recherche. Au plan théorique, l’apport des théories néo-institutionnalistes permet d’approfondir nos constats en lien avec la naissance et le développement des institutions de dialogue social. L’analyse de nos résultats nous permet de vérifier la théorie sur la création des institutions qui se veut la prise de conscience d’une problématique par les acteurs qui perçoivent leur implication au sein des institutions comme une façon de résoudre cette situation. Nous vérifions également la notion d’acteur dominant via le double rôle de l’acteur gouvernemental comme participant et comme donneur d’argent. Finalement, notre recherche a permis de confirmer notre modèle d’analyse tout en le raffinant par l’ajout de nouveaux facteurs déterminants de la concertation économique. Les entrevues que nous avons réalisées nous ont permis d’apporter des nuances et de préciser la portée des facteurs déterminants tirés de la littérature. Notre analyse confirme trois de nos propositions de recherche telle que formulées et deux autres le sont que partiellement. Nos constats confirment en effet que la volonté réelle des parties à travailler ensemble, la présence d’intérêts communs et la participation de l’État sont tous des facteurs qui ont un impact positif sur la concertation économique. La question de la confiance est nécessaire pour la poursuite de la concertation. En appui aux travaux antérieurs sur la question, nous avons observé que la confiance entre les acteurs influence positivement le déroulement de la concertation économique. Nous avons toutefois constaté qu’un certain niveau de méfiance réside entre les acteurs qui participent à ce processus, ces derniers représentant des organisations distinctes qui ont leurs intérêts propres. Pour permettre la concertation entre acteurs, le niveau de confiance doit être plus élevé que le niveau de méfiance. Nos observations nous ont aussi permis d’établir des liens entre la présence des facteurs déterminants et l’atteinte de résultats par la concertation, mais nous ne pouvons pas déterminer leur importance relative: nous ne pouvons donc pas prétendre qu’un plus grand nombre de facteurs réunis va assurer la réussite du processus de concertation ou s’il s’agit plutôt de la présence de certains facteurs qui auraient plus d’impact sur les résultats. Notre recherche fournit un apport important à la littérature sur la concertation puisqu’elle a permis de cerner de nouveaux facteurs déterminants à la réussite de ce processus. Les entretiens réalisés ont montré que le « contrôle des égos » des acteurs de la concertation et la mise en place de mécanismes permettant une intégration réussie des nouveaux participants au processus constituent des facteurs à ne pas négliger. De plus, notre recherche a permis de raffiner notre modèle conceptuel puisque nous avons été en mesure de cerner différents sous-facteurs qui permettent d’approfondir l’analyse des facteurs déterminants de la concertation. Notre recherche comporte toutefois certaines limites puisque les institutions comparées présentent des différences importantes en termes de culture et le nombre restreint d’organisme étudié limite grandement la généralisation des résultats.
This research aims to shed light on the determining factors of economic concertation. Specifically, it pursues three main goals. First, we define the notion of social dialogue and associated terms such as concertation, consultation, tripartism, partnership and collective bargaining. Second, we review the state of social dialogue in Quebec, describing its historical evolution, the actors involved, the themes addressed and the existing forums for dialogue. Some comparisons are also made between the culture of concertation in Quebec and elsewhere (Canada, United States, Europe). In addition, this overview of the different forums for social dialogue provides a better understanding of concertation related to economic development, in particular with regard to planning economic development in a socially responsible way (Papadakis, 2010). Third and lastly, we present an empirical analysis of the determining factors of economic development. This research was conducted in two stages. First, we mapped the existing forums for social dialogue in Québec and collected data from them. This first stage also allowed us to identify the determining factors of concertation generally referred to in the literature. To better understand these factors and improve our analytical model, exploratory interviews were conducted with actors of social dialogue in Quebec and France concerning their involvement in this process. These combined actions allowed us to create an analytical model of the determining factors of economic concertation. During the second stage, we studied two concertation organizations in Québec. Within these organizations, we met union, employer and government actors. Interviews were used as our method of data collection (Gavard-Perret, Gotteland, Haon & Jolibert, 2008), particularly semi-structured interviews with the actors. This type of interview allows the respondents to answer the questions more fully and possibly bring new elements to the model. The method of matching logic was used to analyze their answers (Yin, 1994) and compare them to our research proposals. On a theoretical level, neo-institutionalist theories enriched our observations regarding the creation and development of institutions of social dialogue. The analysis of our results confirmed the theory regarding the creation of these institutions, that is, that actors identify a problem and perceive their involvement as a way to solve it. Our analysis also confirmed the notion of the dominant actor and the dual role of the government actor. Lastly, our research confirmed our analytical model and revealed new factors. The interviews brought out nuances and precisions concerning the determining factors found in the literature. Our analysis confirmed three of our proposals and partially confirmed two others. More specifically, it confirmed the real intention of the parties to work together, the presence of common interests and the participation of the state. It revealed that trust is a necessary element of concertation. In support of previous work, we observed that trust between the actors has a positive influence on economic concertation. However, we observed a certain level of distrust between the actors given their role as representatives of organizations with differing interests. In order for concertation to proceed, the level of trust must be higher than the level of distrust. Our observations also brought out links between the presence of some determining factors and the results achieved through concertation, but it was impossible to determine their relative importance. Therefore, it is not possible to assert that the presence of several determining factors will have a greater impact on the results of the concertation process. Our research makes an important contribution to the literature by bringing out new determining factors of concertation. Our interviews showed that “ego control” on the part of the actors involved and the establishment of mechanisms for integrating new actors are important factors. Our research improved our model by identifying some sub-factors that enriched our study of the determining factors of concertation. However, the limited number of organizations studied and the significant cultural differences between them limit the generalizability of our results.