Three principles must be taken into account in assessing the social responsibilities of international business firms in developing areas. The first is an awareness of the historical and institutional dynamics of local communities. This influences the type and range of responsibilities the firm can be expected to assume; it also reveals the limitations of any universal codes of conduct. The second is the necessity of non-intimidating communication with local constituencies. This requires the firm to temper its power and influence by recognizing and responding to local concerns in the pursuit of its own objectives. The third is the degree to which the firm’s operations safeguard and indeed improve the social and economic assets of local communities. At issue is the question of adequate compensation for the inevitable disruptions that an international business brings to a local community. Beneficial returns must be shared and sustained over the long term in an equitable manner. The nine studies in this special edition illustrate in different ways the importance of these three principles. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007dialog, sustainability, social responsibility, institutional context,
There are three broad explanations for why workers adapt, or fail to adapt, to technological change in the workplace. The adversarial perspective holds that employment security produces resistant workers, and conversely that insecurity assures efficiency in adapting a workforce to technological and organizational changes. Institutionalists argue the opposite, emphasizing that secure workers have little to fear from change. Finally, a neo-corporatist variant sees managers and powerful trade-union leaders as capable of successfully negotiating industrial changes, independently of rank and file preferences. In this paper we explore these explanations via interview data collected from managers and trade unionists (or labour representatives) from Canada and Sweden. Our focus is on three industries -pulp and paper, steel and telecommunications equipment. Analyses deal with specific questions associated with the introduction of new equipment and technology, attempts to introduce organizational restructuring, and experiences with layoffs. We further examine respondents' comments on obstacles encountered during the change process, including the reactions, conflicts and grievances of the rank and file workers at their plants, mills and factories. On the whole, the results of our interviews with respondents at seventy-three plants in our three-industry two-country comparison seem to contradict the strict adversarial theory. While our data provide some evidence in favour of the institutionalist perspective, the neo-corporatist arguments found the most support. Swedish trade union leaders were viewed by managers, and viewed themselves, as more positively disposed to change than either their Canadian counterparts or workers in either country
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