Ian MacPherson Collection
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Formalising the informal: cooperativising those at the margin case studies from India(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2009) Nabar, VeenaTheoretical models see the informal sector as an intermediate and transitory phenomenon, which would eventually be absorbed by the formal sector, which neoclassical literature had projected as an efficient user and allocator of resources. Experience of the last few decades in most third world countries has however given the lie to this premise. The expected positive effects of increasing deregulation and India’s global advent on informal sector are contingent upon flow of capital into this sector and increasing dynamism of rural industries, which has not happened in the Indian economy. Even where enterprise profitability has gone up, the informality of labour relationships allows the employer to get away with paying a wage well below what a formal contract would entail.Item Relationship between institutional economics of co-operation and the political economy of trust(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2009) Vargas-Hernández, José G.The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the institutional economics of co-operation and the political economy of trust. It is reviewed the transactions costs, the principal – agent theory, market power, increasing-returns theory and value creation, strategic management: competitive forces, resource-based theory, organizational knowledge and learning, strategic choice theory and the collective efficiency theory. Finally, it is sustained the political economy of trust.Item Did the conversion from cooperatives to companies really benefit the farmer?(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2009) van der Walt, L.; Lotz, O.Since the mid 1990s many agricultural cooperatives have been converted into companies. After a decade the question could be asked whether these conversions have really benefited the farmer. When the initiative started directors and management convinced farmers that it was the right direction to go and many reasons were stated to motivate this change. The reasons vary from political to business aspects. Fears that the accumulated member funds could be estranged with the new political dispensation after the 1994 elections gave momentum to the conversion process. More important, business motives were put forward to convince farmers that the cooperative as a business model was dated and that the company was the instrument to support them with their farming activities. The reasons for the conversion include free trading of shares, access to capital, utilization of accumulated member funds and favourable return on investments.Item Strengthening the spirit of enterprise: the cooperative way(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2009) Kornginnaya, SudhaDeepening global economic meltdown has severely hit the workforce in India and it has lost over one million jobs in sectors like gems and jewelry, garments, engineering, leather and handicrafts. To restore the financial stability, stimulus measures and rescue packages are crucial to reduce the magnitude of working poor and vulnerable unorganized labour that constitutes 92% of the workforce (The Hindu, 2009). Majority of them being women, are in hardcore poverty with multiple deprivations and without having any safety nets. At this crucial context, the cooperatives need to play a predominant and challenging role as a provider of a safety net for all those who are socially excluded, economically exploited and displaced due to the vicissitudes of the market. They must give priority to a well-conceived workable and inclusive social security strategy that can act as a buffer in times of crisis.Item Essential high-moral trusted transformational leadership in democratic work organizations, problems and a solution(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2009) Shapira, ReuvenOrganizational democracy literature has ignored leadership despite its essentiality for retaining democracy amid success and growth, and despite the tendency of leaders who used democratic trust and consent management, to become conservative autocrats. Autocracy that makes use of market forces and hierarchy negates high-trust culture, engendering covert abuses of power to keep leaders’ high-moral image intact, concealing dysfunction and helping to divert seekers of the causes of democracy degeneration. Problematic trust and leadership concepts have also helped this diversion, keeping leaders’ role in the degeneration of democracy unknown. Leaders’ timely succession before they enter dysfunction phase and become irreplaceable is decisive for workplace democracy, but no solution has been devised for it. Ideas are offered for devising a solution.