In Europe, as well as in other industrialized economies all over the world, employment relations have undergone profound transformations over the last decades. Large numbers of workers have been displaced, involuntarily employed part-time, or hired on temporary employment contracts. The increasing flexibility in the staffing of organizations is experienced, by many employees, as a threat to the continuation of their employment relationships. A growing body of research suggests that such job insecurity can be of fundamental importance from the occupational health perspective as well as the managerial, due to its effects on employees' work attitudes and well-being. This book addresses the nature of job insecurity and investigates its consequences for individuals, the organizations they work for, as well as their labor unions. It also examines whether factors associated with union membership help employees to cope with employment uncertainty. The book is based on a European project involving Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Both individuals and organizations alike are harmed by the increased insecurity that prevails in working life today. By identifying and explaining those factors which result in job insecurity, and examining how the experience affects individuals, organizations, and unions, the authors wish to expand the body of knowledge concerning job insecurity. Such knowledge can lead to a greater focus on this phenomenon within working life, and result in greater effort being put into understanding how preventative measures can be implemented in the future.

Addressing the nature of job insecurity, this title investigates its consequences for individuals, the organizations they work for, as well as their labour unions. It also examines whether factors associated with union membership help employees to cope with employment uncertainty.

Collective bargaining and workers’ voice are often discussed in the past rather than in the future tense, but can they play a role in the context of a rapidly changing world of work? This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the functioning of collective bargaining systems and workers’ voice arrangements across OECD countries, and new insights on their effect on labour market performance today.

(Black & White version) Fundamentals of Business was created for Virginia Tech's MGT 1104 Foundations of Business through a collaboration between the Pamplin College of Business and Virginia Tech Libraries. This book is freely available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/70961 It is licensed with a Creative Commons-NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 license.

This book examines the new ways of working and their impact on employees’ well-being and performance. It concentrates on job demands and flexible work emanating from current economic and organizational change, and assesses impact on workers’ health and performance. The development of issues such as globalization, rapid technological advances, new management practices, organizational changes and new job skills are addressed. This book gives an overview and discusses the potential negative and positive effects of such new job demands and new forms of work.

Organizing Matters demonstrates the interplay between two distinct logics of labour’s collective action: on the one hand, workers coming together, usually at their place of work, entrusting the union to represent their interests and, on the other hand, social bargaining in which the trade union constructs labour’s interests from the top down. The book investigates the tensions and potential complementarities between the two logics through the combination of a strong theoretical framework and an extensive qualitative case study of trade union organizing and recruitment in four countries – Austria, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands. These countries still utilize social-wide bargaining but find it necessary to draw and develop strategies transposed from Anglo-American countries in response to continuously declining membership.