Human capital management of an organization and methods for assessing its effectiveness

At present, the personnel policy is increasingly beginning to cover areas that were not previously taken into account, including the sphere of labor conflicts and relationships, the role of social programs carried out by the organization, etc.

Labor unions and institutional corruption: The case of Kazakhstan

In this study, we used the institutional corruption framework to analyze the evolution of labor unions in Kazakhstan. As a research method, we conducted a case study by combining document analysis with survey data covering (n)1,200 respondents across all 14 regions of the country. Our findings suggest that external and internal influences weakened labor unions and diverted from fulfilling their primary purpose of promoting interests of their members. External influences, represented by restrictive regulatory framework and state intervention, create conditions of limited independence of labor unions leaving them extremely narrow scope to operate in. Internal influences are represented by disagreements and conflicts between national-level labor unions. This article stipulates that dysfunctional and institutionally corrupt labor unions in Kazakhstan serve as an indicator of state fragility. The findings confirmed that institutional corruption of labor unions has an adverse impact on public trust, while a frequent occurrence of labor conflicts might impact political risk factors, contributing to increased state fragility.

Islamic Economics’ Perspective on Labor Relations

The situation when employees are not paid wages is more common nowadays, and labor conflicts are mainly related to this. In the Islamic economy, wage arrears and all issues related to it are of fundamental importance, since the relationship between the manager and employees is much closer than with counterparties or creditors. In addition, there are specific aspects that should be taken into account when analyzing these kinds of questions. The purpose of this article is to explore the Islamic economics view of labor relations.

Introduction of mixed forms of education based on the digital and analog kinds integration of the organization of the educational process of universities

The abrupt transition to the distance learning format during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that the legal framework for regulating the introduction of new digital telecommunications technologies is largely lagging behind in educational organizations, and in some areas, in particular, related to the regulation of “remote” labor relations in higher education is completely absent. The lack of proper legal regulation leads not only to labor conflicts, but also to legal proceedings between students and universities. The article presents an incomplete list of documents (without disclosing their contents) that need to be developed or modified. The study proposes a roadmap that takes into account the parallel work with the constant coordination of the contents of the documents between the working groups. The authors conclude that trade union committees, student and teaching communities should take an active part in the development of documentation, since the proposed transformation of the educational process affects all participants of the educational process in universities without exception.

The assessment of the development of social and labor relations in the Russian Federation in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

The article is based on the materials of the analytical bulletin of the Center for Monitoring and Analysis of Social and Labor Conflicts of the Saint Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions. During the pandemic, the number of social and labor conflicts (hereinafter referred to as SLC) in the sphere of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) increased by 24 % (this year - by 14%). The economic and financial problems that arose during the pandemic have affected the systemic large enterprises less due to the help and support from the state, while small and medium-sized private businesses have been most affected. The analysis of the SLC, based on the relationship between the size of enterprises and the causes of labor conflicts, shows that in the current year, the problems with non-payment of wages are becoming the predominant source of confrontations between employees and employers of all forms and sizes of business. For SME, the problems of staff cuts have also become crucial.

Labor conflicts among nursing staff: reasons, conditions, control methods and resolutions

The aim of the study is existing level of conflicts in the activities of nursing staff and to optimize the ways of managing and resolving conflict situations in the work collective. Results. The level of conflict level of nursing staff of neurological and pulmonological departments was analyzed, the degree of self-assessment of the conflict level of nurses was studied, the main strategies of behavior in the conflict zone were identified and the level of conflict resistance of specialists was determined. Conclusion. The problem of conflicts in the teams of the neurological and pulmonological departments of a medical organization is quite relevant and requires training of nursing personnel in the psychology of communication, and the heads of the nursing service in personnel management and management psychology.

A Matter of Feelings: Mediators’ Perceptions of Emotion in Hierarchical Workplace Conflicts

Emotions play a central role in the process of conflict and resolution. For a mediator, it is important to recognize emotions correctly and act upon them. Whether interventions are appropriate depends to a large extent on the ability of mediators to accurately perceive the emotions of conflict parties. Particularly in hierarchical labor conflicts, this can be challenging, since subordinates tend to hide emotions while supervisors tend to express them. In this study, we investigated if subordinates and supervisors differ in their emotional experience during mediation and whether mediators perceive these emotions accurately. To this end, we compared the extent to which disputants experienced certain emotions with the extent to which mediators perceived these emotions. Data were collected through surveys of mediation clients and mediators in hierarchical labor conflicts in the Netherlands. As expected, subordinates experienced a higher level of negative emotions during the mediation than supervisors did. Positive emotions, however, were experienced to a similar extent by both supervisors and subordinates in mediation. Mediators perceived supervisors’ emotions more accurately than they did subordinates’ emotions. While supervisors’ emotions were positively related with mediators’ perceptions, this was not the case for subordinates’ emotions. Furthermore, mediators were more accurately perceiving supervisors’ negative emotions than their positive emotions. Implications for mediation theory and practice are discussed.

The assessment of the social and labor situation in the country during the coronavirus pandemic: threats to the development of labor relations

For nine years of observations, the data warehouse of the Center for Monitoring and Analysis of Social and Labor Conflicts (SLC) of the Saint Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions has included information about more than 1,300 SLC registered in the Russian Federation. The assessment of the development of social and labor relations and the formation of the labor situation in the country in 2020 was carried out taking into account the constantly changing epidemiological situation, which had a noticeable impact on the Russian economy, the industrial and labor sphere and the social order in general. In the article, the dynamics and features of the formation of the social and labor situation and the development of the SLC are analyzed in retrospect for the period 2016–2020. 2016 is the period in which the maximum number of SLC was registered for nine years of observations. In the period of 2016–2018, there was a tendency for a reduction in the number of conflicts and stabilization of the situation in the social and labor sphere, which changed in 2018, when a new rising trend appeared (social tension increased, and the number of conflicts went up). A key factor in shaping the social and labor situation in the country in 2020 was the spread of the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19, which adversely affected the global and domestic economic environment.

SOCIAL AND LABOR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: UKRAINIAN AND FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

The subject of study in the article is the process of socio-economic conflict management. The purpose of the work is to substantiate the theoretical provisions and methodological approaches in the management of labor conflicts as a form of social and labor relations based on Ukrainian and foreign experience. The following tasks are solved in the article: to investigate the essence and place of social and labor conflict in the system of social contradictions; provide a classification of conflicts in the social and labor sphere; to study the forms and methods of resolving social and labor conflicts: to analyze the success of conflict prevention in Ukrainian and foreign practice. The following methods are used: method of analysis and synthesis, classification-analytical method, abstract-logical method, historical-retrospective analysis and generalization. The following results were obtained: the concept of socio-economic conflict is clarified. The classification of conflicts is carried out, which gives an understanding of the nature and essence of conflict relations on the following grounds: the method of conflict resolution (antagonistic and compromise conflicts); spheres of conflict (political, social, economic, organizational conflicts); direction of impact (vertical and horizontal conflicts); degree of conflict confrontation (hidden and open conflicts); the number of participants in conflict interaction (intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup); needs (cognitive and interest conflicts). Structural and interpersonal methods for resolving conflict situations are defined. An analysis of the current state of resolution and prevention of labor conflicts in 2020 was conducted according to the National Service for Mediation and Reconciliation. Foreign experience in resolving labor disputes has proved the feasibility of developing the following ways to resolve labor disputes in Ukraine: with the help of special courts on labor and social security (sectoral justice); through civil proceedings in general courts; through conciliation and arbitration procedures. Conclusions: The analysis allowed to determine the essence of social and labor conflict as a form of social and labor relations at the micro, meso, and macro levels, which is manifested in the opposition of the subjects of the socio-economic sphere. Applying the gained world experience it is possible to reduce social tensions and to strengthen social and economic safety of the state. Keywords: brand; definition; branding; brand book; rebranding; stages.

Heartland Blues

Heartland Blues provides a new perspective on union decline by revisiting the labor movement at its historical peak in the 1950s and analyzing campaigns over right-to-work laws and public-sector collective bargaining rights in the industrial Midwest. The focus on 1950s labor conflicts, including union failures, departs from popular and academic treatments of the period that emphasize consensus, an accord between capital and labor in collective bargaining, or the conservative drift and bureaucratization of the labor movement. The state campaigns examined in Heartland Blues instead reveal a labor movement often beset by dysfunctional divisions, ambivalent political allies, and substantial employer opposition. Drawing on social movement theories, the book shows how many of the key ingredients necessary for activist groups to succeed, including effective organization and influential political allies, were not a given for labor at its historical peak but instead varied in important ways across the industrial heartland. These limits slowed unions in the 1950s. Not only did labor fail to crack the Sunbelt, it never really conquered the industrial Midwest, where most union members resided in the mid-twentieth century. This diminished union influence within the Democratic Party and in society. The 1950s are far more than an interesting side story. Indeed, the labor movement never solved many of these basic problems. The labor movement’s social and political isolation and its limited responses to employer mobilization became a death knell in the coming decades as unions sought organizational and legislative remedies to industrial decline and the rising anti-union tide.