Search results

The purpose of the article is to outline the insights provided by Alan Fox in Man Mismanagement in relation to the rise of the New Right political economy and the spread of unitarist managerialism. The article assesses the contemporary work and employment relations implications of mismanagement arising from a “second wave” of the New Right ideology from 2010 in the UK.

Responding to the Special Issue on Alan Fox, the article focuses on Alan Fox's book Man Mismanagement, considering industrial relations developments arising between the 1st (1974b) and 2nd (1985) editions relating to the political rise of the New Right. It reviews various literature that illustrates the contemporary IR relevance of the book and Fox's insights.

The New Right’s ideology has further fragmented work, disjointed labour rights and undermined collective industrial relations institutions, and macho mismanagement praxis is even more commonplace, compared to when Fox wrote Man Mismanagement. The stripping away of the institutional architecture of IR renders the renewal of pluralist praxis, like collective bargaining and other forms of joint regulation of work, a formidable task.

The value of the article relates to the identification of dramatic historical industrial relations events and change in the UK in Alan Fox's book Man Mismanagement, most notably relating to the rise to power of the Thatcherite New Right in 1979. Originality is evidenced by the authors’ drawing on Fox's ideas and assessing the implications of the “second wave” of the New Right in the contemporary industrial relations (IR) context of the 2020s under the conceptual themes of fragmented work, disjointed labour rights and undermined collectivism.

In 1989, Muslims' concern with freedom of speech and ineffective attempts to prevent the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses not only crystallised a ‘Muslim consciousness’ but also shed light on the fragmentation of Muslim mobilisation and the lack of ‘communal unity’ that prevented Muslims from having a representative national organisation to lobby the government. In 1997, the institutionalisation of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) under the auspices of a New Labour government filled this gap and empowered Muslims to participate in British governance. In this regard, the MCB has established itself as a key authoritative intermediary between Muslim communities and the British Government, playing a crucial role in the advancement of Muslims' social and religious rights while raising awareness of discrimination and socio-economic disadvantage. In light of this development, this chapter will provide an analysis of the evolution of the British state's engagement and cooperation with the MCB between its launch under New Labour in 1997 and the present. Taking a historical perspective, this chapter will first briefly explain that the implementation of the MCB was meant to overcome the fragmentation and existing divisions within Muslim communities, which were deprived of an effective national representative organisation to represent Muslim interests. It will then underline the fruitfulness of cooperation between the government and the MCB, which coincided with the heyday of multiculturalism and resulted in significant advancements for Muslims in terms of religious rights. The chapter will then depict the British state's shifting relationship with the MCB and disinclination to cooperate with this organisation following the terrorist attacks of 2005.

Environmental and health concerns are considered the most significant motivations for organic food purchasing behaviour (OFP). This study focuses on the roles of health and environmental concerns in OFP in China, aiming to explore whether there are differences in the effects and mechanisms of these two concerns.

We use the PLS-SEM to conduct empirical tests, drawing from survey data collected from 628 Chinese consumers.

The results showed that the OFP was influenced differently by health and environmental concerns. Specifically, the total effect of environmental concern on OFP outweighs that of health concern, whereas the opposite is true for direct impacts. Additionally, environmental and health concerns can influence OFP through attitude and subjective norms, although the specific mechanisms vary. Environmental concern affects OFP more through subjective norms, whereas health concern affects OFP mainly through attitude. Meanwhile, functional value quality was a significant moderator that enhanced the indirect effect of motivation on OFP.

A theoretical framework is constructed to explore the role of two types of motivations in OFP within emerging economies like China, revealing their mechanism and interaction effect with functional values.

In recent years, the relationship between Manchester United fans and their club has been put under the spotlight due to the contentious relationship between the fanbase and the club’s American owners, the Glazer family. However, the commercialisation of Manchester United and their ramping up of their associated brand accelerated massively during the 1990s, as a result of the coincident timing of the country’s glamour club returning to dominance during a period of ever-greater financial returns for top-flight success. As the undoubted commercial trailblazers in English football (and the first English club to be listed on the Stock Exchange), analysing their development during the 1990s is, arguably, the best way of understanding how and why top-flight football clubs operate the way they do and, in a knock-on effect on the league’s competitiveness, why the clubs below them can so easily fall away.