PurposeThis study investigates the mediating role of wage and workforce adjustments, along with the moderating influence of collective bargaining system and employees’ localization, in elucidating the relationship between the COVID-19 shock and workplace employee relations (ER) tension.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data from 1,483 enterprises across 21 prefectural cities in China’s Guangdong Province are collected. The hypotheses are tested by logistic regression.FindingsThe study reveals a positive correlation between the COVID-19 shock and workplace ER tension across crisis-hit enterprises, irrespective of their size or industrial sector. Wage reduction and mass layoffs emerge as significant mediators, while the collective bargaining system (CBS) and employees’ localization act as moderators.Research limitations/implicationsThe measurement of ER is limited in a single-item scale. Representation of China is also limited since the study exclusively focuses on Guangdong province. The study offers some contributions that firm-level data reveal the pathway through which COVID-19 creates ER tension.Practical implicationsOn the one hand, the authors recommend the establishment of an effective communication system between employers and employees. On the other hand, managers should consider the role of informal institutions. Furthermore, the authors suggest implementing tailored strategies at the enterprise level.Social implicationsIntense external shocks result in widespread layoffs and increased wage reductions within workplaces, and under such circumstances, formal or informal institutions may be insufficient to alleviate ER tension. In this case, the state authorities – including governments and other public agencies or bodies – are necessary to intervene in to organize tripartite dialogue.Originality/valueWhile numerous emerging studies on COVID-19 explore how different countries manage industrial relations tension at the national level, few focus on ER at workplace level, particularly in developing countries. Understanding how workplace ER evolve during external shocks and identifying institutional measures to mitigate their negative impact is crucial for future crisis management.
PurposeThe paper uses key themes from Fox’s writing to reflect on the wave of public sector industrial action that developed in the UK since the early 2020s: specifically the relevance of (1) radical pluralism, (2) historical context, (3) understanding the effects of high inflation and (4) (a breakdown of) trust relations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws primarily on evidence from broad public debate but is informed by discussions held with senior union leaders both for a research project and in delivering development training.FindingsRadical pluralism is used as a lens through which to understand declining trust in institutions of pluralist collective industrial relations in the UK public sector, arguing that current developments need to be understood in historical context. An analysis of the industrial action in the early 2020s highlights the ways that a period of high inflation can stress institutions of collective employment regulation, rendering visible the limits of conventional, pluralist industrial relations.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper could be extended by more detailed empirical data collection, both in the UK and other national institutional contexts.Practical implicationsUnions need to more consistently focus on issues of power. A stronger focus on power might identify the limitations of pluralist institutions of collective regulation and embed a commitment to building union influence to challenge those existing structures in favour of mechanisms to build workers' power more broadly.Social implicationsUnderstanding these disputes as, at least in part, being about the limits to and undermining of trust in collective institutions that regulate work and employment allows us to better understand the forces at play and potential outcomes of these disputes.Originality/valueThe paper makes three key contributions: first, applying Fox’s work in a practical way to contemporary UK industrial relations; second, extending his analyses to public sector industrial relations and third, arguing that power needs to be more centrally located within union objectives in order to reshape industrial relations to radical pluralist ends.
In the context of the challenges posed by global climate change and the need for a sustainable energy transition, this study addresses the ways in which innovative strategies contribute to the formulation of public policies aimed at
optimising heating systems. This research aims to identify solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to increase energy efficiency in the field of heating, essential aspects in achieving global sustainability goals to formulate
policy recommendations for an integrated heating system.
Adopting a mixed methodological approach, this analysis combines the literature review with a systematic examination of different initiatives and solutions adopted at the urban level to extract patterns of good practice and highlight relevant relationships and differences. The research emphasises the importance of the synergy between innovation, governance, and financing mechanisms in promoting sustainable and effective solutions.
In the light of good practices and lessons learned from cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Vancouver, and Freiburg, the authors' contribution focuses on identifying governance strategies that facilitate the transition to optimised heating systems. These cities demonstrate how the implementation of well-designed public policies can act as a catalyst for the adoption of sustainable heating solutions, highlighting the essential role of public policy in mediating urban development needs and the effective implementation of sustainability initiatives.
The research results show that adopting an integrated and participatory approach involving all relevant actors can speed up the adoption of more efficient heating systems with reduced environmental impact. This underlines the importance of adopting legislative and public policy frameworks that stimulate heating innovation and encourage collaboration between the public, private and community sectors. Beneficiaries of this research include policy makers, energy professionals, and the academic community, providing them with a solid foundation for the development and implementation of effective public policies. The study concludes that it is essential to develop public policy strategies that promote the adoption of sustainable heating solutions, based on
lessons learned from cities that have successfully implemented such initiatives. Thus, progress towards a sustainable energy future can be accelerated, contributing significantly to global efforts to reduce the negative impact on the
environment.
Public relations. Industrial publicity, Political institutions and public administration (General)
The article examines aspects of public policy formation with the aim of implementing the mobilization model of economic development. Threats and challenges to Ukraine’s national security under martial law indicate about the need for fundamental changes in approaches to the formation of the foundations of public policy aimed at a deep transformation of economic relations. Public policy can become a means of overcoming disputes in society and contribute to the establishment of an order that is recognized by all members of society. And the extent to which public policy takes care of the interests and needs of the common people, or defends transnational, oligarchic, state-bureaucratic, party, confessional, or any other corporate interests, will depend on the actual degree of its publicity and the effectiveness of confronting modern challenges and threats. The main concepts of ensuring the economic security of the state and accelerating its economic development are considered. For the effective functioning of the mobilization model of economic development, there is a need to centralize the state administration system with a strengthening of the role of planning, organization, regulation and control. Economic security is achieved in the presence of the necessary norms, appropriate public policy, an effective mechanism of state administration, effective institutions for the protection of the public interest, and coordination of the activities of political and public forces. The economy of the state should always be aimed at achieving specific social goals, the basis of which is a person, various components of his comprehensive development, his rights, the opportunity to live and work peacefully, cooperation and a fair system. The mobilization model of economic development is meant as an anti-crisis model of the economy, aimed at maximum protection of the state from various threats and challenges, which is based on a special system of public management of economic activity, which allows to ensure the fullest use and restoration of production factors. Only the state can carry out the necessary mobilization of the economy for the benefit of society, taking into account the interests of future generations. Business itself is not capable of this. The work raises the question of fundamental reform of economic relations, overcoming the consequences of economic degradation in the conditions of the arbitrariness of the colonial-oligarchic model of the economy, changing the vector of the country’s socio-economic development in the direction of ensuring economic, technological, digital, cultural and educational sovereignty. According to the results of these processes, not only the management system and the economy must change, people must change, the state itself must change.
The paper asks for the contribution of growth models for the explanation of public sector employment relations in Germany. The paper is subdivided into three parts. The first elaborates on long-term developments as well as forms of employment. The second part analyzes wage setting systems, that is, bilateral collective bargaining for employees and unilateral decision-making for civil servants. The third part compares the empirical outcomes of both sub-systems with the assumptions of growth models and distinguished explicitly various concepts of the state as corporate actor.
This paper explores some of the emerging impacts of climate change on urban environments, specifically, in this case, on the city of Bucharest. While using 2008 to 2023 data acquired from meteoblue.com, the analysis identifies specific trends in the local climate through two indicators: (i) the number of (air temperature) degree-hours beyond or below different thresholds and (ii) the Temperature-Humidity Index (ITU). The key findings relate to some observations that can be made after processing the data and looking at the different resulting trends. On the one hand, the number of degree-hours above certain temperature thresholds seems on an ascendant trendline. On the other hand, a decreasing trendline for degree-hours below lower specific thresholds can be noticed. This suggests that an increase in energy demand for cooling and a slight decrease in energy demand for heating buildings might be expected in the following decades, something with various consequences (e.g., socio-economic, environmental, etc.). When considering the other parameter assessed, the Temperature-Humidity Index (ITU), again, an escalating trend may be observed throughout the period for which data was available. Collectively, the findings raise a flag on specific increasing trends in levels of outdoor discomfort. Although the study's findings may be preliminary and exploring additional datasets would be desirable, they highlight a possible local warming trend and the need for early-stage urban adaptation strategies to increase local climate resilience. Given the concerns raised, the concept of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) is identified as an essential solution to some of the different issues brought forth while assessing the data mentioned earlier and even when acknowledging the current problems experienced by Bucharest’s inhabitants during the hot season.
Public relations. Industrial publicity, Political institutions and public administration (General)
Mario A. Pinzón-Camargo, Juan Pablo Centeno, Ernesto Andrade-Sastoque
et al.
In this work, we seek to answer the question, what are the main logics and enablers underlying the implementation of TIP policies in countries of the Global South? We address this question using the Path-transformative heuristic (Pinzón-Camargo et al., 2020; Pinzón-Camargo, 2022). This heuristic combines two approaches, path dependency and institutional entrepreneurship theories, to explain the processes, decisions, and actions carried by actors in building an alternative path and how they face internal and external pressures that could support or damage their processes. Using an illustrative case based on the Colombian Social Appropriation of Science, Technology and Innovation policy, we examine in-depth interviews and secondary data on the underlying logics and enablers of innovation policies with transformative potential. This work allows us to identify six underlying logics in three of the four phases of the Path-transformative heuristic and six enablers extended through all the transformative pathway. Those elements bring a starting point to unfold and better understand TIP in the Global South.
For online e-commerce platforms, big data intelligent marketing is an essential tool for promoting companies, creating pictures, participating in competitions, and engaging customers. This also gives traditional marketing a new sense of precision and a new approach to increasing revenue. Marketing and public relations based on big data analytics and intelligence should be considered important and profitable for the travel and tourism business. Tourism enterprises need to learn to use intelligent technology to guide marketing activities and formulate comprehensive and accurate marketing strategies. Infiltrate the advantages of intelligence into all aspects of tourism marketing, so as to form an intelligent, precise, and modern tourism marketing and publicity model, and help enterprises to improve their income. This work focuses on the research on intelligent tourism marketing and publicity. The main research contents include the following aspects. First, this work proposes a revenue-enhancing tourism marketing and publicity method, which is mainly divided into the use of intelligence to enrich the form of publicity and marketing and the use of intelligence to refine the content of publicity and marketing. Second, this work proposes an IWOA-BP network for evaluating a revenue-enhancing intelligent tourism marketing promotion method. It improves the WOA algorithm by introducing a nonlinear convergence factor and adaptive crossover mutation to construct the IWOA algorithm. Then IWOA is applied to initial weights and thresholds for optimization, which can solve the drawbacks of the traditional BP network and improve the performance and reduce the training time. Third, this work conducts a comprehensive evaluation of the proposed revenue enhancement-oriented tourism marketing and publicity methods and IWOA-BP, and the experimental results verify the feasibility of these methods.
The impact of publicity translation and communication is a critical link in China’s international public relations strategy. The primary goal of the critical task of “disseminating Chinese culture and transmitting China’s image” is to improve Sino-foreign cooperation and ensure that the world understands and recognizes China. It entails the movement and spread of various cultural elements across countries, and it affects every aspect of human society. It is a necessary means of communication between people, nations, and countries. We should take into account many differences between the East and the West in terms of language, culture, ideology, and so on when translating. The tone of the text is determined, and the writing is concise, which aims to analyze ideas, clarify viewpoints, and achieve the purpose of publicity, among the factors affecting the communication effect of publicity translation. It possesses qualities, such as accuracy, politics, timeliness, monosemy, objectivity, and integrity, among others. This paper will investigate the characteristics of the factors affecting the communication effect of publicity translation and text types from the lexical and syntactic levels, as well as the specific application of text type theory in the communication effect of publicity translation.
Issues specific to ethics and academic integrity cover a wide range of fields and can take the form of professional ethics, the ethics of scientific research, the ethics of relationships between students and between students and teachers, and the ethics of classroom activities. Violation of academic integrity is also known as “academic misconduct” or “academic dishonesty”. There are different ways of committing acts of violation of academic integrity, but it is important to keep in mind that committing any of them has consequences that will be reflected in both academic and professional life. Therefore, it is important to be known, recognized, and avoided. The main aim of our research is to explore the student’s perception about the ethical norms and academic integrity during the didactical and research activity at their university. Our findings show that students have knowledge about the academic integrity norms and can respect them, but, sometimes, if it is easy to obtain the same result, they decide to use the unethical practices (copy-paste, wrong citation, plagiarism). Results, implications, and future directions of research are presented.
Public relations. Industrial publicity, Political institutions and public administration (General)
The present study aims to investigate the perception regarding the education system in Lebanon and its impact on the communities’ development. The research methodology consists of a survey conducted among alumni from different types of schools. The study uses quantitative research methods to investigate the role of education for the development of society. The research instrument used was a questionnaire designed by the author based on previous studies that investigated the perception of education’s role in the development of society. The main findings of the study suggest that in Lebanese society, education has a significant impact as well as a strong need for education facilities and an increase in the budget spent by the government on the education field.
Public relations. Industrial publicity, Political institutions and public administration (General)
In the twenty-first century, promotion is everywhere and everything has become promotable: everyday goods and organizations, people and ideas, cultures and futures. This engaging book looks at the rise of advertising, public relations, branding, marketing and lobbying, and explores where our promotional times have taken us. Promotional Cultures documents how the professions and practices of promotion have interacted with and reshaped so much in our world, from commodities, celebrities and popular culture to politics, markets and civil society. It offers a mix of historical accounts, social theory and documented case studies, including haute couture fashion, Apple Inc., Hollywood film, Jennifer Lopez, the Occupy movement, Barack Obama’s election campaigns, news production and the 2008 financial crisis. Together, these show how promotional culture may be recorded, understood and interpreted. Promotional Cultures will appeal to students and scholars of media and culture, sociology, politics, anthropology, social and industrial history.