Partisanship, political constraints and employment protection reforms in an era of austerity

Why do some governments adopt unpopular reforms entailing far-reaching liberalization of the labour market, while others opt only for marginal adjustments or even regulatory reforms? This paper explains the likelihood of different types of reform as an effect of different constellations of government partisanship and veto players. Combining the ‘blame avoidance’ and ‘veto players’ logics of politics, the paper argues that veto players have either a constraining or enabling effect depending on the partisan orientation of government. Correspondingly, liberalization is most likely to be adopted either by right parties facing few veto players, or by left parties in contexts with a high degree of power sharing. Regulatory reforms are most likely when left governments enjoy strong power concentration, but marginal regulation may be also adopted under external pressure by right governments facing many veto players. An analysis of employment protection reforms in 24 EU countries during 1990-2007 supports the argument that the effect of political constraints and opportunities on the choice of reforms is shaped by partisan difference

One Path or Several? Understanding the Varied Development of Tripartism in New European Capitalisms

Are newly established institutions capable of shaping actors' strategies and coordinating behavior on a single path? Contrary to punctuated equilibrium analyses, this paper suggests that the constraining capacity of a range of newly established institutions in new European capitalisms is weak and that their very interpretation is subject to contention. Focusing on peak-level tripartism - a formally similar institution whose functioning has varied across national contexts - this paper proposes an actor-centered framework to elucidate the logic and consequences of actors' ongoing strategic maneuvering for the interpretation, enactment, and development of these young institutions. Combining insights of rational choice and historical institutionalism, the paper develops a heuristic model which, by focusing on strategic choices of government offi cials and union leaders, links the varied enactment of tripartism to different power balances that become mutually accepted in the course of their repeated interactions. In offering a set of falsifi able propositions, the paper provides a guideline for building analytical narratives to evaluate empirically this model.Sind neu geschaffene Institutionen in der Lage, Akteurstrategien zu determinieren? Der Ansatz dieses Discussion Papers steht im Gegensatz zu "Punctuated-Equilibrium"-Ansätzen. Es wird argumentiert, dass in den neuen osteuropäischen Marktwirtschaften der Einfluss einiger neu geschaffener Institutionen schwach und ihre Interpretation strittig ist. Im Fokus der Betrachtung steht dabei der Tripartismus auf zentraler Ebene - eine Institution, die in verschiedenen nationalen Kontexten unterschiedliche Funktionen entwickelt hat. Von einem akteurzentrierten Ansatz aus werden Logik und Konsequenzen des permanenten strategischen Manövrierens der Akteure für die Interpretation, Inkraftsetzung und Entwicklung dieser jungen Institutionen untersucht. Das Paper kombiniert Erkenntnisse des "Rational-Choice"-Institutionalismus und des historischen Institutionalismus und entwickelt daraus ein heuristisches Modell, das - durch Fokussierung auf die strategischen Entscheidungen von Regierungsbeamten und Gewerkschaftsführern - die unterschiedlichen Inkraftsetzungen des Tripartismus mit unterschiedlichen Kräfteverhältnissen in Verbindung setzt. Diese wiederum werden im Zuge ihrer wiederholten Interaktionen gegenseitig anerkannt. Das Paper stellt eine Reihe falsifizierbarer Hypothesen auf, die Anhaltspunkte für "Analytical Narratives" bieten, anhand derer das Modell empirisch bewertet werden kann.Introduction Postcommunist tripartism: Extensive functions, ambiguous rules Causes or effects? Reconsidering the institutions–behavior link The four pillars of an interactionist approach Shaping postcommunist tripartism: Modeling interactions Initial choices Subsequent choices Interaction outcomes: Distinct institutional paths A guideline for applying the model Conclusions: Power, perceptions and institutional development Reference

Loyalty and Power in Union-party Alliances: Labor Politics in Postcommunism

Against the background of the changing relationships between trade unions and political parties in Western Europe, this paper examines the nature and outcomes of union–party alliances in East Central Europe. The paper advances two interrelated arguments. First, the nature of union–party ties in postcommunism is significantly different and can be best described as an inverse dependency relationship in which political parties have always been the stronger partner. Second, contrary to the conventional assumptions based on the experience of Western Europe, strong union–party ties have worked to the detriment of labor in East Central Europe. This paradox is explained by poor reserves of loyalty, which are a direct consequence of the absence of a long history of close ties and mutually beneficial exchanges. The way in which such new alliances respond to economic imperatives is not likely to be affected by commitment concerns, but rather by the balance of power in the relationship. Given the fact that the balance of power is tilted towards parties, disloyal behavior is more likely to occur on the side of political parties than on that of the unions. In particular, in the context of pervasive economic constraints and limited party competition over economic policy issues, strong ties with the unions increase parties' incentives to co-opt union leaders in the task of communicating the necessity of reforms to their constituencies.Vor dem Hintergrund des sich in Westeuropa vollziehenden Wandels der Beziehungen zwischen Gewerkschaften und politischen Parteien untersucht das Papier Ausprägung und Auswirkungen der Allianzen zwischen Parteien und Gewerkschaften in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Das Papier entwickelt zwei zentrale Argumente. (1) Die Beziehungen zwischen Gewerkschaften und Parteien im Postkommunismus unterscheiden sich entscheidend von den westeuropäischen Erfahrungen und können am treffendsten als Beziehungen "umgekehrter Abhängigkeit" beschrieben werden, in denen die politischen Parteien immer die stärkeren Partner sind. (2) Im Gegensatz zu den Erfahrungen Westeuropas haben starke Bindungen zwischen Gewerkschaften und Parteien den Arbeitnehmerinteressen in Mittel- und Osteuropa geschadet. Dieses Paradox ist mit mangelnden Loyalitätsreserven zu erklären, die wiederum durch das Fehlen einer Tradition enger und auf gegenseitigem Nutzen beruhenden Beziehungen begründet sind. Die Art und Weise, wie solch neue Allianzen auf wirtschaftliche Notwendigkeiten antworten, wird weniger von Loyalitätsüberlegungen als vielmehr von dem in den Beziehungen herrschenden Machtverhältnis beeinflusst. Da die Macht der Parteien größer ist, neigen sie eher zu Loyalitätsbrüchen als die Gewerkschaften. In Anbetracht der extremen wirtschaftlicher Zwänge und des geringen Parteienwettbewerbs in wirtschaftspolitischen Fragen im Postkommunismus bieten starke Verbindungen zu den Gewerkschaften einen Anreiz für die Parteien, die Gewerkschaftsführer zu kooptieren, um ihrer Wählerschaft die Notwendigkeit von Reformen zu vermitteln.1 Introduction 2 Union - party alliances in Western Europe: From golden age to demise 3 Unions and parties in East Central Europe: Genesis and transformation The end of class politics: The same causes as in the West? 4 Managing alliances: Loyalty and power 5 Protecting the workers or protecting the market? Poland Hungary Czech Republic Conclusions Reference

Negativity Bias:The Impact of Framing of Immigration on Welfare State Support in Germany, Sweden and the UK

How does the framing of immigration influence support for the welfare state Drawing on research from psychology, specifically the notion of negativity bias and the sequencing of negative and positive information, this article argues that negative immigration frames undermine welfare support, while positive frames have little or no effect. Individuals take less notice of positive frames, and the effect of such frames is further undermined by the previous exposure to negative frames, which tend to stick longer in people's minds. The findings, based on survey experiments on over 9,000 individuals in Germany, Sweden and the UK, show that negative framing of immigration has a strong and pervasive effect on support for welfare. The article also finds some evidence that this effect is further amplified for people who hold anti-immigrant and anti-welfare attitudes or feel economically insecure. The effect of positive framing is considerably weaker and does not strengthen welfare support in any of the three countries.</p

Corporate Accelerators: Transferring Technology Innovation to Incumbent Companies

The recent phenomenon of corporate accelerators is an excellent opportunity for incumbent companies to participate in promising innovations from startups all over the globe. Incumbent companies introduce structured accelerator programs for cohorts of startups, which in turn benefit from resources, mentoring and networks. The underlying research analyzes the growing interdisciplinary scientific literature on corporate accelerators to shed light on this uprising topic. We conducted a literature review according to the guideline of Webster and Watson (2002) by analyzing 20 scientific references. The results show that researchers applied qualitative methods to explore accelerators in detail and quantitative methods are used to analyze secondary data on startups and accelerators. Overall, most findings of recent research are of exploratory nature and our results summaries the main findings of the articles. Finally, we extracted a list of success factors for incumbent companies running corporate accelerators as well as for startups participating in such programs. In terms of theoretical impact, the articles analyzed apply open innovation theory, the resource based view and institutional theory to explain corporate accelerators. Our study reveals that Information Systems research has so far neglected to conduct studies researching corporate accelerators although the findings of our review show large potential for future research

Growth and yield of mixed versus pure stands of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L. ) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) analysed along a productivity gradient through Europe

Mixing of complementary tree species may increase stand productivity, mitigate the effects of drought and other risks, and pave the way to forest production systems which may be more resource-use efficient and stable in the face of climate change. However, systematic empirical studies on mixing effects are still missing for many commercially important and widespread species combinations. Here we studied the growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in mixed versus pure stands on 32 triplets located along a productivity gradient through Europe, reaching from Sweden to Bulgaria and from Spain to the Ukraine. Stand inventory and taking increment cores on the mainly 60-80 year-old trees and 0.02-1.55 ha sized, fully stocked plots provided insight how species mixing modifies the structure, dynamics and productivity compared with neighbouring pure stands. In mixture standing volume (+12 %), stand density (+20 %), basal area growth (+12 %), and stand volume growth (+8 %) were higher than the weighted mean of the neighbouring pure stands. Scots pine and European beech contributed rather equally to the overyielding and overdensity. In mixed stands mean diameter (+20 %) and height (+6 %) of Scots pine was ahead, while both diameter and height growth of European beech were behind (−8 %). The overyielding and overdensity were independent of the site index, the stand growth and yield, and climatic variables despite the wide variation in precipitation (520-1175 mm year−1), mean annual temperature (6-10.5 °C), and the drought index by de Martonne (28-61 mm °C−1) on the sites. Therefore, this species combination is potentially useful for increasing productivity across a wide range of site and climatic conditions. Given the significant overyielding of stand basal area growth but the absence of any relationship with site index and climatic variables, we hypothesize that the overyielding and overdensity results from several different types of interactions (light-, water-, and nutrient-related) that are all important in different circumstances. We discuss the relevance of the results for ecological theory and for the ongoing silvicultural transition from pure to mixed stands and their adaptation to climate change.The networking in this study has been sup-ported by COST Action FP1206 EuMIXFOR. All contributors thanktheir national funding institutions to establish, measure, and analysedata from the triplets. The first author also thanks the BayerischenStaatsforsten (BaySF) for supporting the establishment of the plots,the Bavarian State Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture, and Forestryfor permanent support of the project W 07 ‘‘Long-term experimentalplots for forest growth and yield research’’ (# 7831-22209-2013) andthe German Science Foundation for providing the funds for the pro-jects PR 292/12-1 ‘‘Tree and stand-level growth reactions on droughtin mixed versus pure forests of Norway spruce and European beech’’.Thanks are also due to Ulrich Kern for the graphical artwork, and totwo anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism

The Influence of Changes Over Managing the Human Resources with the Special Regard to the Role of the Leader Concerning the Increase of Productivity of an Organization

In the business environment, people and their abilities make the main resource of every organization through which they contribute to realization of organizational goals. Their creativeness, inclination to innovation, motivation, being well-informed are the characteristics which make them different from the other resources in a company. Management revolution has thrown out to the surface of the business world people who have to have power supported by various kinds of knowledge, skills and individual characteristics. Also, they must be capable of managing the changes and processes using their personal authority. The process of multiplication of new multidisciplined management knowledge and abilities is a dynamic process providing an autonomous development of every company. Changes have become so complex and dynamic that the destiny of the world order largely depends on their knowledge and abilities as well as their actions in business and society generally speaking. The basis of management necessarily being performed by a leader lies in a dynamic development of today`s society. A leader is the one who can lead an organization in today`s turbulent environment, for he is the one who can face the changes successfully. The key of a good leader is in his relationship towards other people, his emotional role comes to the first place. Leadership rests on a vision how to survive and win in the world of changes. The newest information in the area of the development of human values, the development of consciousness, and functioning of human`s brain give us valuable insight and tools with which we can come to the bottom of motives of human activity and use them in a positive way. For leaders there is no reason for changing people (that they want to do that); on the contrary, to them, differences represent advantages not disadvantages. A leader makes an atmosphere in a team on the grounds of human`s strengths not weaknesses. In this way he will completely use people`s talents, especially those ones he himself does not possess. A leader treats people the way they like to be treated. Thanks to this fact, we can analyse specific demands of certain working places and the characteristics of the individuals working at these places with the great certainty. Knowledge is needed in order to manage the human`s potentiality, in order to get, develop, hold and award the right people who will accomplish the appointed goals and follow the strategy of the company. In order to achieve better results of running business, it is necessary to have a good organization and management of human resources in a company. The TEAM WORK which is getting more and more actual, drastically leads to the increase of the productivity of an organization giving us the sinergetic effect and integrating knowledge of all individuals working in a team