John Andrews Fitch spent a year studying labor conditions in the steel industry around Pittsburgh during 1907 and 1908. The results of his research became The Steel Workers, one…
Abstract
John Andrews Fitch spent a year studying labor conditions in the steel industry around Pittsburgh during 1907 and 1908. The results of his research became The Steel Workers, one of six volumes in the Pittsburgh Survey, a groundbreaking 1910 analysis of conditions faced by working people in a modern industrial city. Introducing his discussion of common employment practices in the steel industry, Fitch declared, “A repressive regime…has served since the destruction of unionism, to keep the employers in the saddle.” He traced the origins of management’s arbitrary power to the Homestead lockout of 1892, when Carnegie Steel destroyed the last stronghold of organized labor in the mills of western Pennsylvania. During his stay in Pittsburgh, Fitch saw the results of fifteen years of management domination. “The steel worker,” he wrote, “sees on every side evidence of an irresistible power, baffling and intangible. It fixes the conditions of his employment; it tells him what wages he may expect to receive and where and when he must work. If he protests, he is either ignored or rebuked. If he talks it over with his fellow workmen, he is likely to be discharged” (Fitch, 1989, pp. 206, 232–233).
In the search for differentiation it is not enough to attend to the selling environment, equal attention must be directed towards the customers and what they want to buy. This…
Abstract
In the search for differentiation it is not enough to attend to the selling environment, equal attention must be directed towards the customers and what they want to buy. This article, which is confined to a handful of retailers and concentrates on the non‐food side only, tries to examine how far they can determine the design of their products and what role independent designers are playing.
David Lewin and Bruce E. Kaufman
Volume 12 of Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations (AILR) contains eight papers that deal with contemporary and historical aspects of unionism and other forms of union…
Abstract
Volume 12 of Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations (AILR) contains eight papers that deal with contemporary and historical aspects of unionism and other forms of union representation, union-management relations, union political activity, labor market regulation, and interpretations of selected leading labor scholars’ writings about the evolution of welfare capitalism in the U.S. Four of these papers, by Daniel & Siebert, Borgers, Rubinstein, and Pereles, were winners of the 2002 AILR/Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA) “best papers” competition.1
Interest is increasing interest in the links between social exclusion and access to both grocery and retail stores. There is however little knowledge of the extent to which…
Abstract
Interest is increasing interest in the links between social exclusion and access to both grocery and retail stores. There is however little knowledge of the extent to which consumers lack convenient access to retail facilities. Data from 30,000 households from the 1999‐2000 Scottish household survey were analysed to measure opinions on the convenience of local food stores and the quality and convenience of local shops and link these perceptions to a series of economic and social indicators. One out of every ten Scots households believes they do not have convenient access to a local food store, an issue which affects both rural and urban residents. Scots were also found to be very ambivalent about local stores, while e‐commerce is shown to have limited applicability as an alternative to local retail provision, particularly as an alternative source of food and groceries.
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Describes a media‐rich online course that helped to raise awareness of e‐mail best practice at international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Abstract
Purpose
Describes a media‐rich online course that helped to raise awareness of e‐mail best practice at international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Design/methodology/approach
Draws on information from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and from Fuel, a compliance‐education specialist, which helped to design the course.
Findings
Reveals that the course was delivered in five weekly modules, each between five and ten minutes long, to enable the lawyers to fit the training into busy schedules. More than 2,000 staff undertook the training.
Practical implications
Highlights the effectiveness of e‐learning in a company with more than 2,400 fee earners across 18 countries.
Originality/value
Provides details of a course that was cost‐effective to design and deploy.
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Investigates the results of research into attitudes towardsshopping centre refurbishment. Considers the historical background ofretail development and the motivation and…
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Investigates the results of research into attitudes towards shopping centre refurbishment. Considers the historical background of retail development and the motivation and requirements for refurbishment. Concludes that development is likely to proceed in two ways: centres with simpler, more durable design; and a return to the department store format.
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With the promise of more and more retailers trading up and the increasing proliferation of speciality shops, it seems that the designer may be just coming into his own. Interior…
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With the promise of more and more retailers trading up and the increasing proliferation of speciality shops, it seems that the designer may be just coming into his own. Interior Design International, held at Olympia in March, claimed record numbers of visitors to its exhibition — a claim which was endorsed by a number of exhibitors to whom RDM spoke. And the conference held alongside it, “Tomorrow's Interiors”, had its shops and stores' seminar well attended; among the delegates from design houses and product groups were names like Marks & Spencer, Macdonalds, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Maple and Cadbury‐Schweppes. Other exhibitions in the offing include Shopex, to be held at Olympia from 18–22 May. The publicists have forecast a bumper exhibition, and claim to have some 220 exhibitors lined up. That's 55 up from last year's showing, when RDM counted something in the region of 165 companies. Of last year's number, around 75 have dropped out this year — or if your prefer it the other way, 90 exhibitors have chosen to stay on. The fact that Shopex has been brought down to London's Olympia has led to speculation that this could be a good thing for visitors from home and abroad. Last year, it was said that Birmingham was simply too decentralised, especially for the foreign visitor, and that most of the good examples of design and shopfitting were in the London shops anyway. The exhibition has a range of participants from the fields of shopfitting, design, display, point of sale, security, lighting, business machines, merchandising and allied products. It is interesting to see how many exhibitors are in the field of computers, cash registers and EPOS: Anker Data Systems, Associated Business Machines, Cash and Security Equipment, Chubb Cash, Compucorp, Decimo, Electronic Cash Registers, Geller Business Equipment, Gunn Electronic Cash Registers, Hugin Cash Registers, MLM Computers, NCR, Norfrond, Norman Pendred Cellgrave, SI Design Studio, Sanyo Marubeni UK, Shilglade Retail Systems, TEC UK, Transaction Data Systems. It will also be interesting to see what the shopfitter and designer has to offer the retailer today, faced as he is with a shrinking market. The consumer's pocket is emptier than ever before, and the major multiples have already absorbed most of the growth possible from squeezing out the independent. That the element of design will also play an increasingly important part in retailing was also evident from the ICSC 5th Annual Conference, also held in London in March. In the seminar entitled “Shopping centre response to the need for a better quality of life”, we heard how the consumer has become more discerning and demanding, and how we have to give her a more enjoyable, attractive and socially useful shopping centre; one that is well‐designed, convenient and inclusive of good services, eating areas and facilities like nurseries and libraries. From the same conference came a very interesting talk by Rodney Fitch of Fitch & Company, the design consultants, on the subject of “Graphics, signs and mall furniture.” This speech is reported below; we also present a version of the paper on design by David Calcott of John Michael Design Consultants, presented at the “Tomorrow's Interiors” conference.
Corporations that continue to downsize through attrition or staff cuts have a fundamental problem. How can they muster the resources to maintain their competitive edge and bring…
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Corporations that continue to downsize through attrition or staff cuts have a fundamental problem. How can they muster the resources to maintain their competitive edge and bring new products quickly and profitably into the marketplace? The solution: Eliminate company walls and borders to encourage change.