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Culture and organisational context: how it influences voice behaviour
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how business practitioners can encourage voice behaviour (i.e. communicating opinions and concerns to improve business functioning). This paper specifically focuses on individuals’ ideas of power distance as a predictor of voice. Furthermore, it evaluates the moderating effect of work discipline on this relationship between power distance and voice. Data was collected from a survey sent out to mainly Dutch and German employees who are active on the labour market. A sample of 139 responses was used to regress power distance, voice behaviour and an interaction variable of work discipline and power distance. The results show that power distance is negatively related to voice behaviour. The larger the power distance the less voice is expressed. Work discipline, the moderator, did not prove to have significant effects on the relationship. Exploratory findings show that a significant moderating effect may exist when solely looking at the private sector. This study contributes to previous research in its extension of proof of the negative relationship between power distance and voice. It furthermore contributes to the assessment of work discipline and its influence on voice behaviour
A Machine Learning Approach to Shipment Consolidation
Get PDFThis research analyzes the current approach used by a client of DHL LLP for the transportation of shipments from suppliers to production sites. As a result of this analysis, several improvements are proposed that can be used to reduce the costs of transportation in the logistics network. Focus is put on shipment consolidation, rather than on the rerouting of shipments. In this paper, two consolidation methods are introduced. Cluster analysis groups together suppliers that are geographically close and generally ship to the same production sites, and a time-based policy that introduces a maximum waiting time for shipments before they are released. While only marginal improvements are obtained when applying these techniques indepen- dently, a combination of the two provides a powerful synergy. A trade-off between the savings and proportion of on-time shipments arises, when a maximum waiting time is introduced. The potential savings, therefore, depends on the company’s tol- erance for late shipments. While the proposed techniques work in theory, practical and organizational challenges emerge when applying them in the real world.
The Revision of Regulation 1049/2001: Public Access Deadlocked for a Decade
Get PDFRegulation 1049/2001 on access to Commission, European Parliament and Council documents was due to be revised a decade ago. The revision process started with a proposal by the Commission in 2008. However, the negative response of the European Parliament signalled what came to be deadlocked process. This chapter aims to unearth the reasons underlying this deadlock by comparing the proposal of the Commission and the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in response to it. The resulting differences in both institutions’ positions are going to be used to clarify their underlying motives for rejecting each other’s proposals. The ultimate objective of this chapter is thus to shed light on the Commission and the European Parliament’s attitudes towards transparency and the right to public access to documents within the European Union
Do we Need a Political Economy of Surveillance? The Case of the GDPR: A Critical Account of the Norms Governing Cyberspace
Get PDFThis study examines the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union from a critical perspective. By doing so, it aims to generate a comprehensive account of online surveillance practices for commercial purposes, and how public policy in this field is normatively conceived. In order to untangle the normative elements of this highly contested and complex regulation, which took more than five years to be signed under intense lobbying, this paper concentrates on the topics of Consent, Data Ownership and Profiling. These three interrelated elements constitute the primary sources of power asymmetries in the Web between users and providers of online services. By employing the proposed theoretical perspective of a political economy of surveillance, this paper draws from concepts of Foucauldian panoptic surveillance and of Marxist political economics, in order to draw a picture of current surveillance practices by major, quasi- monopolistic IT corporations such as Google and Facebook. The analysis then tests this framework with regard to the normative stance taken by the GDPR, the first major initiative aimed at regulating cyberspace. Deconstructing regulation in this way helps to understand the normative and ideological lines of action of the EU in the newly emerged policy area of the Common Digital Market
Populist Political Parties in the Media: A Newspaper Analysis of the PVV
Get PDFSince the turn of the twenty-first century, populism is on the rise in Europe. Traditionally, scholars focus on the definition of populism and the discovery of explanatory factors for the rise of populist parties. The role of the news media has largely been neglected here, even though studies outline that the media play a large role in shaping people’s opinions. This study concentrates on how media content might affect public perceptions concerning populist parties. It undertakes a newspaper analysis of three Dutch newspapers, focusing on the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV). The media-effect ‘framing’ is used as a helpful tool to make sense of the media content. The analysis shows that the selected newspapers create a largely negative environment for the PVV in Dutch politics. Furthermore, the media portrayal becomes increasingly negative over time as more extreme frames are used to address the party. In addition, the study finds that both popular and quality newspapers are rather negative towards populist parties. 
Is the spectre of Weimar still haunting?: \u27Militant democracy\u27 and party proscription in contemporary Germany
Get PDFThe way in which democratic states react to political parties with anti-democratic goals is a subject of major interest and debate in the study of political extremism. Previous authors have coined the term ‘militant democracy’ for states that employ severe restrictions against extremist parties. In this regard, Germany is widely perceived as the prototype of a \u27militant democracy\u27. The so-called ‘wehrhafte Demokratie’ scheme within the Basic Law consists of provisions such as Art. 21(2), providing the possibility of banning a party. However, recent developments in the German practice of party-banning challenge the outright classification of Germany as a ‘militant democracy’. Based on a case study of the failed attempt to ban the extreme-right party NPD, this study investigates the question as to what extent the ‘wehrhafte Demokratie’ scheme in Germany can still be characterised as militant in application. It claims that the 2017 judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court represents a paradigm shift in German party-banning, calling for a re-classification of Germany as an ‘immunised democracy’. The Court has moved towards a more cautious and restrictive interpretation of Art. 21(2), displaying an increasing trust in the German democratic system to contain its enemies without having to employ its sharpest legal weapons
Evaluating the effectiveness of emergency relief of the Central Emergency Response Fund after natural disasters
Get PDFNatural disasters are increasingly common and emergency relief is often provided to help the affected countries recover. The United Nations started the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in 2005 that allows for fast allocation of money to providers of humanitarian aid. This thesis evaluates this fund with respect to natural disasters, since its effectiveness can have implications for future emergency relief allocations. The following question is answered: To what extent can the grants provided by the Central Emergency Response Fund decrease the output growth volatility caused by natural disasters? A panel database is constructed and dynamic panel models are estimated by applying the Generalised Method of Moments. Results show that when CERF funding is provided after a natural disaster, the expected effect on output growth volatility of the natural disaster is neutralised and close to zero. This implies that CERF funding is effective, however, reports on the functioning of CERF report possible improvements concerning the allocation. Furthermore, alternative estimation methods might provide consistent results
The End of Privacy? Paradoxes and Dilemmas of Internet Use and Online Surveillance
Get PDFWith the Internet growing in importance in our daily lives, concerns about privacy and data protection have emerged. While people worry about where they data may end up, they continue making themselves openly transparent by sharing information about themselves and their lives online. This study aims to understand the paradoxes between privacy considerations – mainly, the wish to keep individual data private and secure – and the actions that people undertake in reality. More specifically, it focuses on three paradoxes and dilemmas of privacy: age, perceived usefulness, and rewards. These will be studied by analyzing the results of a survey, in which respondents from the EU, North America and East Asia were asked about their online habits and their opinions on various security issues and privacy measures. The analysis ultimately aims to further the understanding of privacy paradoxes, and what hinders people from protecting their data sufficiently
So, We Meat Again...
Get PDFThe meat industry is being blamed for its role regarding climate change, environmental degradations as well as food insecurity in the Global-South. Additionally, the conditions in which animals are being raised and slaughtered in industrial farms are often denounced as cruel and morally unacceptable. Assuming that most meat consumers in developed countries are to a certain extent aware of the negative consequences inherent to meat consumption, how can the increasing consumption of meat be explained? In an attempt to understand what Ricard (2014) describes as a “moral schizophrenia” (p.15), this paper applies Bandura’s Moral Disengagement Theory to industrial meat production in developed countries
The Driving Forces behind the Victory of Donald J. Trump
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to establish how important economic factors are for individual voting behaviour. To that regard the analysis focuses on determining which factors influenced the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election by considering county level data on several economic and non-economic variables. Individual voting behaviour is thus inferred from county level variation. The results of the analysis suggest that economic factors, especially income and income inequality, have a considerable impact on electoral choice. Further, several non-economic factors are predicted to influence the electoral outcome as well. The magnitude of the effect economic and non-economic variables exhibit is comparable, stressing that economic factors were important determinants of the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and significantly influence voting behaviour