Greener workplace: An examination of Green HR initiatives adoption through the theory of planned behaviour lens

The goal of this article is to propose the model of green human resource initiatives adoption. Based on innovation management and psychology literatures, attitude, pressure and controllability are key drivers for organizational change. Data were collected from 210 organizations in Australia. Results indicated that attitude, pressure and controllability significantly influenced the firms’ adoption of green HR initiatives. Attitude and resource availability especially had greater impacts than pressure. Limitation, implications and future researches are also outlined.

Informalidade na região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro a partir de 1980

Este estudo busca contribuir à discussão teórica sobre o comportamento do mercado de trabalho e da informalidade na Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro - RMRJ, sobretudo a partir dos anos 1990. As informações utilizadas na análise são provenientes principalmente da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS) e do Cadastro Geral do Emprego e Desemprego (CAGED) - Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (MTE) - da Pesquisa de Amostragem a Domicílio (PNAD), da Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego (PME) e da Economia Informal Urbana (ECINF) - do Instituto de Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) - com um recorte nos setores tradicionais da economia. Umas das hipóteses centrais é a da existência de uma relação de causalidade entre as políticas econômicas implementadas a partir de 1990, tais como privatizações de empresas públicas, abertura comercial e financeira para o capital estrangeiro com a informalidade. Estas foram determinantes para oscilações nos níveis de emprego formal das indústrias, com o avanço substancial do setor informal, sobretudo na região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro (RMRJ).A análise, feita por setores de atividade, permite comprovar que a informalidade apresenta-se cada vez mais claramente como uma característica da estrutura da economia da metrópole do Rio de Janeiro e não simplesmente como um fenômeno transitório relacionado à redução das atividades industriais.

Os limites da flexibilização e informalidade na produção e trabalho contemporâneos: imigração laboral boliviana e a indústria de vestuário de São Paulo

A migração laboral de bolivianos para São Paulo é um processo intrinsecamente relacionado aos planos de ajuste estrutural ocorridos na Bolívia e no Brasil na segunda metade dos anos 1980 e no início da década de 1990, respectivamente. Para a Bolívia, o Decreto 21.060 implicou a privatização de mineradoras e conseqüentes demissões em massa, além de uma abertura econômica que favoreceu migrações internas para as regiões cocaleiras e para as periferias das grandes cidades. Posteriormente, esses migrantes e seus familiares se destinaram a países limítrofes como Argentina e Brasil. Destaca-se nesse contexto a localidade de El Alto, origem de grande parte dos imigrantes que se destinaram a São Paulo. Do lado brasileiro, houve também uma abertura econômica que foi prejudicial a amplos setores da indústria, como a cadeia têxtil-vestuário. Para reduzir os custos de produção e aumentar sua competitividade em relação às mercadorias asiáticas, a indústria de vestuário se reestruturou defensivamente e subcontratou grande parte de sua produção material às oficinas informais que empregam imigrantes bolivianos geralmente jovens, indocumentados e com baixa qualificação profissional. Nessa pesquisa, relacionamos esse fluxo populacional às transformações estruturais ocorridas nos dois países, destacando as mudanças nas relações de trabalho decorrentes do processo de reestruturação produtiva. Também abordamos as redes de solidariedade desses imigrantes e os meios pelos quais estes vêm revertendo uma inserção na sociedade de destino em que predominam condições precárias de trabalho e habitação, além de uma instabilidade permanente decorrente da irregularidade documental que atinge grande parte desses trabalhadores.

Livelihood Strategies of Dock Workers in Durban, c. 1900-1959

This dissertation examines the livelihood strategies of African dock workers in Durban, South Africa, between the Anglo-Boer War and the 1959 strikes. These labourers did not conform to common conceptions of radical dock workers or conservative African migrant workers. While Marxist scholars have been correct to stress the working class consciousness of Durban’s dock workers, this consciousness was also more ambiguous. These workers and their leaders displayed a peculiar mix of concern for workers’ issues and defences of the rights and interests of African traders. Many of Durban’s dock workers were not only wage labourers. In fact, only a minority had wages as their only source of income. The Reserve economy played a role in sustaining the consumption levels of their households and, more importantly, more than half of the former dock workers interviewed for this research engaged in some form of commercial enterprise, often based on the pilferage and sale of cargoes. Some also teamed up with township women who sold pilfered goods while the men were at work. This combination of commercial strategies and wage labour has often been overlooked in the literature. By looking at these livelihood strategies, this dissertation considers how rural and urban economies interacted in households’ strategies and reinterprets the reproduction of labour and the household in order to move beyond dichotomies of proletarian versus rural consciousness. The dock workers’ households were neither proletarian households that were forced to reside in the countryside because of apartheid, nor traditional rural homesteads with a missing migrant member. The households were reproduced in three geographically separate spheres of production and consumption, none of which could reproduce the household on its own. These spheres were dependent on each other, but also separate, as physical distance gave the different household members some autonomy. Such multi-nodal households not only bridged the rural and the urban, but equally straddled the formal/informal divide. For many, their employment on the docks made their commercial enterprises possible, which allowed them to retire early from urban wage labour. Consequently, the interests of wage labourers could not be divorced from those of African small-scale entrepreneurs.

Contributo das relações públicas na comunicação do plano estratégico de combate à fraude e evasão fiscais e aduaneira 2012/2014

Trabalho de projeto apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Gestão Estratégica das Relações Públicas.

The financial system in Mozambique: Opportunities, barriers and market potential

This research is empirical and exploratory intending to analyse the attractiveness of banking in Mozambique, considering its positive outlook. To identify the opportunities and barriers, the methods adopted were elite interviews with banking executives, complemented by secondary data. The opportunities for new entrants seem to include bankarization and the emergence of micro and smallmedium enterprises; other avenues seem to include investment banking, support of mega-projects (e.g. energy, infrastructures) through syndicates and cooperation with multilaterals, and the participation in developing capital markets. Conversely, the main barriers include shortage of talent, inadequate infrastructures, poverty, unsophisticated entrepreneurial culture (e.g. informal economy, inadequate financial reporting), burdensome bureaucracy (e.g. visas), foreign exchange regulation, as well as low liquidity and high funding costs for banks. The key conclusions suggest a window of opportunity for niche markets, and new products and services in retail and investment banking.

La vente de contrefaçon d’objets de luxe à New York

Présente depuis le temps des Romains, et bien au-delà des simples «articles de Paris», la contrefaçon s’est introduite dans tous les domaines de fabrication. L’objectif de cette recherche est de déterminer quelles peuvent être les raisons et les motivations qui poussent un groupe d’immigrants à se spécialiser dans la vente de contrefaçon d’objet de luxe. Pour y répondre, nous proposons de suivre deux hypothèses. D'une part, le contexte politicoéconomique international est constitué de telle sorte qu'il favorise un groupe restreint de pays et limite en contrepartie les débouchés à bon nombre de pays en développement. Les pays développés modulent, ou font pression sur les organisations internationales à leur image afin d'en tirer davantage de bénéfices, et souvent au détriment des pays en développement. Et d'autre part, à l'intérieur de ces populations en mouvement, certains individus font le choix (inévitable ou stratégique) de se cantonner dans un commerce de la rue, parfois illégal, comme c'est le cas de la vente d'objet de luxe contrefait. D’un autre côté, l’adhésion d’un individu à un commerce illégal ne peut lui être totalement imposée par des forces extérieures. Ainsi, il est démontré dans ce travail, que la vente de contrefaçon répond aux particularités et aux exigences de certains individus: statut d’immigrants illégaux, peu ou pas d’expérience de travail compatible avec le pays d’accueil, travail sans contraintes d’horaire, travail à l’extérieur et, surtout, favorisant la vie sociale.

Des principes de responsabilité et de solidarité pour un accès équitable aux soins de santé : le cas des travailleurs de l'informel urbain du Cameroun en situation de vulnérabilité

La question de l’accès financier des personnes socialement défavorisées aux soins de santé est aujourd’hui un enjeu éthique de grande importance dans de nombreux pays à faible revenu ou en voie d’émergence. On peut se demander comment l’équité dans l’accès aux soins peut être rendue effective puisque l’égalité des chances pour tous et la santé sont des pré-requis aux choix de vie et à la réalisation de soi. Les soins de santé sont donc d’une importance éthique particulière du fait qu’ils contribuent à préserver notre statut comme citoyens pleinement fonctionnels. Au Cameroun, bien que des efforts considérables soient consentis par les pouvoirs publics et leurs partenaires extérieurs pour favoriser l’accès aux soins des personnes défavorisées, le secteur de la santé reste encore très marqué par l’inégalité dans l’accès financier aux prestations sanitaires. Les médicaments les plus essentiels ne sont pas financièrement à la portée de tous et les coûts d’accès aux soins ambulatoires et hospitaliers dans les formations sanitaires sont manifestement prohibitifs pour une large frange de la population. Lors des épisodes de maladie, l’accès aux soins se fait par le paiement direct au point d’accès, et la pratique de l’automédication s’est répandue du fait de l’incapacité des personnes socialement défavorisées à payer leurs soins sans courir le risque de perdre l’essentiel de leur revenu. Les mesures de prise en charge sociale ou des systèmes de financement qui garantissent la réduction des inégalités entre les classes sociales sont fortement limitées par les faibles capacités d’une économie qui repose essentiellement sur l’informel. Sur la base de cette réalité, cette thèse analyse à partir du cas des travailleurs vulnérables du secteur informel urbain, la pertinence du choix politique de la couverture universelle santé au Cameroun à travers les principes de responsabilité et de solidarité. La population d’étude choisie est celle des travailleurs vulnérables du secteur informel en considération des problématiques liées à leur accès aux soins de santé, de l’importance de leur apport dans l’économie du pays ( 90 % des travailleurs) et du rôle qu’elle pourrait jouer dans l’atteinte de l’objectif de la couverture universelle santé. La thèse analyse donc, d’une part, les conditions et les modalités de répartition des biens sociaux qui répondent à la nécessaire redistribution équitable des ressources, en l’occurrence l’accès aux soins de qualité. Après avoir montré les préoccupations d’ordre politique, social, économique et éthique liées au problème d’accès universel aux soins, la thèse propose des stratégies opérationnelles susceptibles de conduire à l’amélioration de la qualité des soins et à un assainissement de la gestion du secteur des services de soins (éthique du care et éthique de bonne gouvernance). Aussi, dans la perspective de la recherche d’un financement local soutenable et durable de l’accès de tous aux soins, la thèse propose une approche participative. L’exploration de cette perspective aboutit au résultat qu’une approche inclusive et intégrée de promotion de l’économie informelle (dynamisation de ses activités et potentialisation de ses acteurs) pourrait faire de ce secteur un véritable levier de développement économique et social. Un développement social et solidaire durable et susceptible, sur le long terme, de réaliser l’objectif de la couverture universelle santé. En d’autres termes, elle propose des stratégies de capabilisation et de responsabilisation des travailleurs du secteur informel, en vue d’une société plus impliquée, plus responsable et plus solidaire. Une approche susceptible de matérialiser le droit à la santé, de construire l’autonomie des travailleurs en situation de vulnérabilité et de renforcer leurs capacités contributives à travers une opérationnalisation adaptée au contexte des principes de responsabilité et de solidarité.

Work and economic security in the 21st century

In recent decades there has been a transformation of two central concepts of modernity – labour and the household. Ela Bhatt – the founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA), has made an important contribution to this transformation. Through the emergence of unions such as SEWA, the notion of who represents labour is being broadened; the marginalised are finding an institutional voice. Increasingly, the household is being recognised as a site of both production and reproduction. SEWA is not a traditional trade union that aims, through collective bargaining with an employer, to improve its members’ wages and working conditions as sellers of their labour power. Instead, it aims to empower women economically in the informal economy by bringing them into the mainstream economy as owners of their labour. The union dimension of SEWA builds their collective power through struggle; the cooperative dimension translates their bargaining power into the economic and social development of its members and their community. Besides, Bhatt’s approach to the self-employed was a direct challenge to the ILO’s tripartism when it was established in the early seventies. The first part of the paper provides a short biography of Ela Bhatt, describes the origins of SEWA, analyses a ‘classification struggle’ over how and who is to define what a worker is. In the second part the author considers SEWAs innovative organizing strategy and is rethinking modernity in the labour context. In the conclusion the paper discusses the lessons that can be learnt from Ela Bhatt.

La piratería de Nigeria como una amenaza a la seguridad marítima del Golfo de Guinea (2007-2012). Una aproximación desde el crimen organizado

Desde finales de los 70 la piratería se convirtió en un problema para Nigeria. Con el tiempo adquirió características del crimen organizado y en 2010 se transformó en un problema transnacional, afectando a Estados del golfo de Guinea. Así, a través de una base conceptual, el estudio de caso concluyó que los factores internos –como la pobreza, debilidad estatal y marginalización- y externos –siendo ellos la falta de políticas internas destinadas a las aguas y la ausencia de estrategias marítimas en la región- de la piratería, crearon una dinámica para que dicha actividad se convirtiera en una amenaza a la seguridad marítima del golfo de Guinea, tomando como referencia a Benín y Togo. Siguiendo la línea argumentativa, se demuestra que la búsqueda de una solución a la delincuencia marítima ha generado interacciones de seguridad que sugieren las primeras fases de un posible complejo de seguridad regional.

Aseguramiento para la población pobre: una herramienta de protección financiera

La financiación de los sistemas de salud en los países en desarrollo mediante esquemas de aseguramiento, presenta el desafío estructural de la informalidad de los mercados laborales. Ni el esquema de financiamiento comunitario ni el del subsidio a la oferta, parecen ofrecer una garantía de acceso a los grupos más vulnerables. Pero la extensión de esquemas de seguro subsidiado también implica mayores presiones sobre el gasto social. Este artículo es una revisión de la literatura sobre el tema, en el cual se revisan experiencias internacionales de los tipos mencionados, y se analiza su relevancia para Colombia.

Una aproximación al financiamiento de un sistema de protección social en Colombia

El documento hace una revisión de las principales fuentes de protección social que hay en Colombia y las características de los sistemas de protección de otros países. Se encuentra que gran parte de lo que se conoce como gasto social se destina al tema pensional y que los resultados de los fondos de solidaridad son muy pequeños frente a la autoprotección de los hogares. Se propone tener en cuenta los esfuerzos individuales y privados que hay en Colombia al diseñar un sistema de protección social, pues de lo contrario se estarían desincentivando estos esfuerzos.

Informality in the City: a Theoretical Analysis

This thesis theoretically studies the relationship between the informal sector (both in the labor and the housing market) and the city structure.

The rise of urban tourism in Havana since 1989

This article looks at the development of urban tourism in Havana, Cuba, in the period since the collapse of state socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe. It provides an interesting case study of the adoption of an outward-oriented state development policy in the context of a socialist state. The dramatic rise of urban-based tourism in Havana since 1989 is described, followed by a review of the socio-economic impacts of such tourism. These include: income generation; job creation; the rise of the informal economy, including crime and prostitution; increased migration to the primary city, along with spatial concentration on the coastal strip, and associated environmental impacts. In conclusion, the article considers the fat that the promotion of tourism has returned Havana to some of the conditions that existed in the city Socialist Revolution in 1959.

Money laundering control and suppression of financing of terrorism : some thoughts on the impact of customer due diligence measures on financial exclusion

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between anti-money laundering (“AML”) and combating of financing of terrorism (“CFT”) customer due diligence (“CDD”) measures in the financial services industry, and exclusion from financial services.
Design/methodology/approach – An introduction to the concept of financial exclusion is provided as well as an overview of international AML/CFT CDD standards. The paper highlights a softening of national CDD measures in South Africa and the UK to lessen the impact on financial exclusion.
Findings – Countries should consider the impact that CDD requirements may have on financial exclusion when they design their AML/CFT systems.
Research limitations/implications – Multi-discilinary research is required to improve the understanding of the broader interaction between AML/CFT objectives, financial exclusion and economic development, especially in countries with a large informal economy.
Practical implications – CDD requirements may unnecessarily exacerbate financial exclusion if they are not formulated with care to reflect the reality of the particular country setting.
Originality/value – The paper offers insights into the international standards resulting to the identification of clients and the experiences in the UK and South Africa regarding the implementation of these standards on financial exclusion.