Leadership and Organisational Climate Effect on Innovation

Leadership and Organisational Climate Effect on Innovation Access the respective contributions of leadership and organisational climate to promote innovation. 1. Introduction Now more than ever, companies are putting more attention to innovation that make their products and services more competitive, thereby enable them to survive and flourish in the changeable and challenging global environment. There is vast number of articles and papers supporting that innovation can significantly enhance sustainable competitive advantage (Porter, 1998; Shoham and Fieganbaum, 2002; McEvily et al., 2004). Tidd Bessant (2009, p.4) also stressed that innovation is regarded as a key driver of competitive advantage in the manufacturing sector. Innovation is seen by Fagerberg (Fagerberg,et al 2006, p.4) as the first attempt to carry out a new creative idea, and translate it into practice. However, it isnt easy; its a difficult and complex task. According to Tidd and Bessant (2009 p70), there are two primary factors influencing the success of innovation: technical resources (people, equipment, knowledge, money, etc.) and the abilities in the organisation to manage these resources to encourage innovations. However, LAM (Fagerberg,et al 2006 et al 2006, p.115) points out that the latter is the precondition which can place high premiums on innovation. Organisation is a kind of breeding ground for generating creative idea and capturing new opportunities. According to Tidd and Bessant (2009 p.100), an innovative organisation has several key components: appropriate structure, effective team working, external focus, leadership, key individual, creative climate and etc. All the factors are absolutely essential. All innovative organisation needs leadership at every level. Wenger and Snyder (2000) shows that there is a positive relationship between leadership and innovation. There are increasing evidences to prove that unique leadership asserts great importance to innovation efficiently and effectively (Oke et al. 2008). In an organisation, half of the changes in performance are attributable to leadership directly and indirectly (Tidd and Bessant 2009, p.103). Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, who has led Apple to become the giant in the technology market with innovative products, is a typical example to illustrate how important and influential of leadership to innovation and creativity, in order to make his organisation a household name within the industry and worldwide alike. Leadership is becoming more and more popular nowadays. There are many articles, discussions and forums in newspapers, TV shows about how a CEO joining a badly performed company makes the company stop losing money and even regain profit in few years time. And with successful leadership, company has successfully developed a new product. Undeniably, leadership capabilities are the paramount element to sustain an organisation to top the innovative rank and achieve remarkable revenue. One of the most important roles that the leaders play within organisation settings is to create the climate for innovation (Bessant Tidd 2009). Organizational climate for innovation is crucial. West (1990) proposed that when in an organization, peoples creative ideas can be presented without worry about the refuse and ridicule, and can be highly valued and supported, and then innovation can be encouraged. The essay will go through to respectively access the contributions of leadership and organizational climate for innovation. 2. What is leadership? There are many definitions of leadership. Most researchers probably would agree that leadership can be viewed as a group process rather that a role, which is conducted by the group leader through leading and managing his or her followers to influence the process so that they can successfully accomplish their tasks and meet desired common goal (Northhouse 2009, p.3; Jacobs Jaques 1990, p281). No matter the size of a company or an organisation, leadership is vital (ORegan Ghobadian 2006). With poor or no leadership, an organisation will be chaotic. Plenty of examples show that strong leaderships can reverse the worsening business situation. Apple former CEO John Sculley replaced Steve Jobs as the new Apple CEO in 1985 with a high salary plus big bonuses guarantee. During his tenure, he made a big mistake that was to give Microsoft the authority to use Apple Macintosh graphical user interface in Microsofts windows operation system. The wrong decision opened the door to Microsofts Windows Vista and Window 7 operation system, for which the graphical user interface is similar to Macintoshs look and feel, to compete with Apple, and resulting in the latter losing in the lawsuit of plagiarism. Also because of his inaccurate perceptions to Apples product line, Apple launched the world first PAD Newton, which produced disastrous sales because of the high price and bad software pro blems. Under his leadership, Apples market share and stock prices continued to slide, and could not recover for several years until the current Apple CEO Steve Jobs took control of the Company again (Hormby 2006). Similarly, 3M is known for years as an innovator. However, several years ago, under the leadership of former CEO James McNerney, 3M shifted its strategy from innovation to quality control by implementing Six Sigma. Thousands of budgets were cut, hundreds of RD engineers were laid off, and many innovative projects were suspended. Although 3M had had a sound financial balance sheet at the beginning of his tenure, however the long-term damage is detrimental to the whole business. 3M has slided downward from the top rank of innovator ever since (Hindo 2007). 3. Type of Leadership Leadership may touch on all the employees in an organisation, and can be found in every level (Bass Riggio 2008). According to Northouse (2009), there are two different forms of leaderships, which are assigned leadership and emergent leadership. The people get the formal position to be a leader in an organisation, such as the team leader, department manager, CEO, etc, which are called the assigned leadership. Nevertheless, those people with nominal position sometimes are not the real leader but a figurehead for the team in some particular circumstances because of the lack of sufficient personal competence. On the opposite, some people who have not been officially assigned to a leader position, but they perform as a leader with the chief characteristics for a real leader, they can take the challenge to fulfil the team goal, and be regarded as a leader by the people in the organisation, which Northouse call them emergent leadership. IBM e-business real leader Dave Grossman is an examp le. When Dave Grossman came to IBM as a programmer, he found the importance of open internet to expand IBMs business, therefore, he tried to convince IBM top management the bright future of the new e-business. Eventually, IBM accepted his proposal and started opening up their e-business. With his effort, IBM successfully developed its e-business under his leadership, which transformed IBM from a broken up big blue-chip company to a new dot-com company (Tidd Bessant 2009; Hamel 2000). Dave Grossman was only a programmer, but he has the characteristics that leader should have such as vision and passion. No doubt, Grossman, at the time, was an innovative leader, who had a clear vision and successfully turned around and transformed an underperformed company from its old business model to a brighter future. 4. Characteristics of Innovation Leader Leadership always has some visions on bringing about the organisation better prospects. In this sense, leaders are necessarily innovators, who facilitate inventions to materialize their visions of better future (Selman 2009). A leader is not necessarily a great man or hero type of figure, and do not necessarily have university certificate. We heard a number of innovation leaders, who did not graduate from college but still have achieved great successes. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, they both did not finish their college (Although they tried to get degree after their successes). Nevertheless, they have devoted most of their lifetime to pursue their goals, and have secured unprecedented achievement. Its the passion to their business and success, which keeps driving them. Although there are no universal characterises that an innovation leader should possess, generally, other than passionate about the business and success, people usually think a good leader should possess good communication skill, administrative and social capability, skills in their task domain, responsibility, and energetic, initiative, flexibile (Tidd Bessan 2009, pp.104-105). Importantly, an innovation leader must be a good communicator, who is able to help their followers to fully understand the strategy of the organisation, and make sure all of his or her followers will be able to implement the leaders strategy correctly. At the same time, this can guarantee that all followers be timely informed of the progress of the organisation and what the progress of each individual. This can ensure the whole process be smoothly and precisely completed task by task and therefore achieve the common strategic objective (Zerfass Huck 2007). Internally, a innovation leader should administrate well the process of implementation of each task, and make sure the team can complete the task in time and meet all requirements. Externally, the leader should take the responsibility to build up a social network that can promote the product or service on behalf of the company, so that the product and service can be developed and commercialized successfully, which requires the social skill of the leader. (Storiti 2006). Therefore, a innovation leadership should be a good communicator, a good administrator, and a good social swinger. To lead an innovative team, innovation leaders should have substantial knowledge of his given domain. Yuki (2006) points out that expertise can be taken as a power by leader to influence their followers. Other than expertise, cognitive-processing skills are crucial factors to an innovative leader. Combination of expertise and cognitive-processing skills can allow leaders to communicate more clearly with their followers, to better understand the exact needs from their followers, and provide them with prompt and correct support (Tidd Bessant 2009, p.105). Outside, the expertise leaders can present their team more effectively. We can look back to the earlier example of the Apple former CEO John Sculley, his inability to Apples product line is the big reason of his failure. There are thousands of reasons to determine how innovation leaders should be responsible for their task and willing to take the responsibility for all the actions during the innovation process. To get respect and trust from the followers, the most important thing to do is to give them the credit for all achievements and successes, and take the responsibility for any fallings or mistakes. Therefore, followers will be motivated and will be more willing to be led. Due to the dot com bubble in 2001, Cisco had suffered a lot, sales has plunged largely and stock price fells down sharply, more severe, the employee has became very anxious and lost their desire. During the rough time, Cisco CEO John Chambers, took this as his responsibility, requested to reduce his salary to one dollar annually without any bonus until the recovery of company performance. Urged on by his behavior, employee has cheered up and work harder so that Cisco could return to profitability by 2004. 5. Innovation Leadership and Doing the right things Leadership is very important in every step of innovation process (Waldman and Bass,1991). Although some innovations are created by the employees, who are not in the positions as nominal leaders or anyone in the management board, generally speaking, almost all the innovations emerge from a clear strategy and all-around support from the leadership. By assessing the right things a leadership should do such as making long-term strategy, dealing with turbulence and uncertainty, serving and supporting their followers, etc (Isaksen Tidd, 2006, p136), we can generate an outline that explains how leadership contributes to the promotion of innovation. Mapping out a visionary strategy is the fundamental task for an innovative leader to guide the followers to think and behave in a right direction and thus complying with the organisations specific goal. Creative teams have clear and common goals (Tidd and Isaksen 2006, p186). Although freedom is one of the most important part to creativity, which is an essential part of innovation, generally, creativity stems from peoples reaction to a specific goal rather than waiting for peoples affective appeal (Jaussi Dionne 2003). Goal-setting has been viewed as a motivational technique to creativity (Locke Latham 1990). Firstly, it gives the followers a general framework of what kind of idea that will be appreciated and applicable in the organisation in a specific time; Secondly, Gladstein (1984) found that in an organisation, a common goal can make all the members work more closely that can enhance the communication in organisation and facilitate information sharing so as to ignite the spark of creativity and innovation. As Lazonick (Fagerberg,et al 2006, p.20) mentioned, there are many uncertainties in innovation process. An effective leader should have the ability and sight to forecast and preview possibilities that may occur during the process. As for the existing uncertainties and turbulence, leadership can solve these problems by several strategies including buffering, smoothing, adapting, and rationing, at the same time, the leadership can give followers some directions, encouragement and trust to motivate them, so that the process can operate as efficiently as possible in every aspect (Gemin Tarondeau 1982). A great leader understands the perspectives of uncertainty and turbulence as full of opportunities and as the outcome of innovation. In 2001, after dotcom bubble busted, Apples CEO Steve Jobs launched hard disk based iPod, with a high storage of 1000 music songs, and entered the much crowded MP3 player market. This was viewed by many as bad entry timing. Previously, this market sector was dominated by flash memory based MP3 players from Sony and many small manufacturers around the world, with 512MB storage much less than iPod. iPod was a user-friendly, click-wheel interface driven by a powerful marketing campaign overseen by Jobs personally. Jobss vision was realized in 2003 when Apple opened its first iTunes store, selling licensed music tracks to consumers. This demonstrates that Jobs understood the competitive edge of his iPod and launched it in the aftermath of crash of dotcom bubble. The success of iPod and iTunes has shown a great example of the combination of innovation and strategy at work. Of course, it further enhances the position of Jobs being the leader of innovative product in IT world even at the time of uncertainty. Robert Greenleaf (Isaksen Tidd 2006, p133) proposed the concept of servant leadership which means the leaders firstly should serve and help their followers, and understand their needs and provide the support, which is essential for innovation. For example, in order to gain market place through innovative products, an organisation must commit strategic resources, which are controlled in the hands of top management, in another word, the leadership. This is obvious that when a leadership is reluctant to commit resources, innovation can hardly be nourished. We can see the release of Betamax in 1970s, the first generation of video cassette recorder, was the strategic initiative of Akio Morita, the late founder and chairman of Sony Corp at the time. Akio dedicated resources to the RD team for the Betamax development (Oke et al. 2008). Leadership is about transformation and has largely to do with challenging the way business have been achieved so far. They usually do things differently, rather than do things better. Transformational Leaders will have the encouragement to rebel the stereotypes, and spend time to thinking out of the box. Beside, they like to taking thoughtful risks and building strong teams of people to work across boundaries. By doing things differently or unconventionally, distinguishes innovative leader from ordinary leader. 6. Organisational Climate As mentioned earlier, the other crucial factor the innovative leadership needs is to create an organisational climate for innovation. Klein and Sorra(1996) stressed that organisational climate is a key factor in innovation implementation. Building up an innovative climate or culture in an organisation is one of the important tasks of an innovative leadership. At the same time, creative organisational climate is one of fundamental elements that leads to success of innovation. Doing so successfully will certainly further secure and strengthen the leadership, which initiates innovative climate in the first place. This success will also bind more followers to the leadership because of its respective contributions for innovation, or in another word future success. A leadership should have a quality and skills to manoeuvre the internal environment of an organisation to create a favourable climate for innovation. Ashkanasy et al (2000) maintained that although there is no direct influence between organisational climate and innovation, a favourable climate can naturally drive people to seek innovation. Schneider (1990) stressed that organisational climate is generally defined as employees affection to their working environment and the anticipation of what kind of behaviour can be rewarded. Climate more concerned to the individuals feeling, behaviour and attitude in an organisation, however, it has been regarded as an attribution of the organisation (Ekvall, 1996). It can influence the communication, problem solving, decision making and the way of learning (Isaksen Tidd 2006, p.328). Unlike the culture, which is concerned with deeper and more enduring values, norm and beliefs, the climate is easier to be observed and changed(Isaksen Tidd 2006, pp.308-309) There have been many dimensions of organisational climate such as trust and openness, challenge and involvement, idea time and support, conflict and debate, risk taking and freedom, which have been identified as the most critical factors for supporting creativity and change (Isaksen Tidd 2006, p329). We will look into the following aspects of climate for innovation and their interactions with leadership contributions trust and openness in an organisation challenge and involvement support and space of ideas conflict and debate risk taking freedom 6.1 Trust and Openness Trust and openness concern more about the emotional level. Trust can increase resource-exchange and combination between business units, which contribute to produce innovation (Fagerberg,et al 2006). Ewicki et al (1998) contested that trust can be treated as a fundamental ingredient for the organisation to collaborate with each other; consequently, the collaborative climate can nurture innovation (Ruppel and Harrington, 2001). With strong level of trust and openness, people in the organisation will feel safe so that they can speak out their minds and raise some divergent points. They dont fear their ideas will be stolen. If employee feels that the management and leadership always are there to criticize new idea or comment, employee wound not take the risk to put forward their new ideas. For Instance, in order to avert such fear, in 3M, they have set up the Genesis Grants for people who have proposed new ideas even though these ideas are deemed not suitable to his or her current work d ivision or office department. In doing so, this has encouraged employees to present their thoughts and ideas freely. At the same time, to take balance between useful ideas, and unwanted, wild cat and time wasting ideas, 3M has the 15 percent rule that can uphold employee to explore new idea by doing the project they are interested in. Furthermore, with openness, the employee can learn from others experience so as to avoid some unnecessary attempts or mistakes which may save a great deal of time and money; at the same time, employee can get some clues from the others mistake and generate some new ideas. What 3M does here, is to provide a safety net for staff to freely express their ideas and comments, whilst keeping certain degrees of control over the commentary process of avoiding intentional or unintentional abuse of the trust and openness between leadership and staff, or among fellow staff and their peers. 6.2 Challenge and Involvement Challenge and involvement means the degree that people are involved in daily operations, long-term goal and visions (Tidd Bessant 2009), which can emotionally influence the peoples enthusiasm for their work which can contribute to the success of the organisation. During the stickiness to a same task, people may feel dull and lack of interest, however, certain challenge such as a new task or a new position which can inspire people to exert their capability on creative thinking and intrinsic motivation. 3M CEO have applied the mechanism renewal to encourage the innovation. Under such circumstances, new businesses are branched out from old or existing businesses. New management teams are then assigned to new business units. As a result, these new units are able to grow quickly. When these new businesses are under new managements, the newly established business unities have to develop new products and find new markets to achieve their growth objectives to make up for contributions from the old or existing businesses, which they have become segregated from. As stated by Carmeli and Schaubroeck (2007), creative work involvement is important to employee to create achievements and innovation. Involvement in a task can make people think that they are important, they will have the sense of commitment and ownership, therefore, they will delegate more to the task. In 3M, the role of employee is valued as a strategic partner, everyone has the responsibility for leadership and can empowered to act on the vision of the organisation, which have given the employees a sense of commitment that can, to a great extent, stimulate the them to work hard and be more innovative too. 6.3 Support and Space for Ideas Innovation is a time-consuming process (Fagerberg,et al 2006, p 349). Idea time and space give the people amount of time to think, plan, discuss or even test before having an action, which, to a great extent, foster new ideas within the working period. In a supportive climate, people can gain enough resources such as people, time, and money for innovative ideas. At the same time, they may realize there are values and respond to their creative potential and contributions so that they may exhibit higher levels of creative performance (Madjar et al 2002). Oldham and Cummings (1996) showed that supportiveness can significant enhance the creativity and contribute to the number of patent. A key strategy in 3M to allocate resources that allows staff to play with ideas with their own space and time. The 15 percent rule provides the staff in 3M with certain time and space in activities, which are not related to their current core business tasks. Some activities are curiosity-driven, which hav e sometimes resulted in breakthrough products such as the ever-popular Post-itÂÂ ®, which is the typical product initiated from the 15% rule. The development process in Google has a 70-20-10 rule. Google staff must spend 70% in the core business, the other 20% allow staff to roam free to encourage creativitywhere all the most interesting products emerge. The rest 10% is for crazy and radical ideas that might not work out but feel worth pursuing. 6.4 Conflict and Debate Conflict concern more about the relationships between people in an organisation, and debate focused on issues and ideas (Tidd Bessant 2009). Some researchers such as Moscovici (1980) and Nemeth Nemeth-Brown (2003) have stressed the value of conflict in that it can provoke people to think and find out creative or new viable solutions. More creative ideas can be stimulated by encouraging debates or even criticisms (Nemeth et al, 2004). Adequate conflict and debate can help company to create new capabilities by gathering diverse ideas that reflect multiple opinions to generate new options which could help company out of the old practices (Mitchell 2009). In a conflicting climate, people may be driven to strive finding the argument to support his or her own position, therefore, they need to concern the all-around of his or her opinion, or otherwise, they will lose their argument. However, the conflict and debate only can be effective in an organisation with open and collaborative clima te; otherwise, the conflict and debate will generate negative effect such as personal insult and attack (Tidd Bessant, 2009). 3M has recognized the utility of conflict in organisation can help creative thinking. In 3M, once an innovative idea came out, a conflict-free gestation and critical discussion are necessary before it is turned into an actual business product. 6.5 Risk Taking Risk taking refers to the tolerance of uncertainty and unknown situation in an organisation (Tidd Bessant, 2009). Risking-taking is one of the important ways to creative performance, because it can make good use of the opportunities for creativity-relevant resources on experiments, without experimenting things, there will be no inventions. In an organisation with high risk-taking culture, people will be rather free to try their new ideas without fear of the possible failure and they are more willing to express their new ideas freely in the first place (Tidd Bessant, 2009). 3M explicitly implements the strategy to encourage risk-taking and accept mistakes. They value employees who take wise and reasonable risks that helps to keep 3M business viable. 3M encourages employees to focus on solutions rather than placing blame. Under the risk-taking valued climate supported by the leadership, many employees are taking the initiatives, which constantly contribute to the boost of business gr owth of 3M. Dave Girouard, the President of Enterprise of Google, concedes that not every idea may bear fruit, but says there is an internal formula to assess new ideas. Google has a 70/20/10 model, which is 70 per cent of staff efforts are to be focused on core business, 20 per cent of staff efforts should be focused on related but new areas, and the rest of 10 per cent of staff efforts should reserve for radical ideas, some of which may turn into great advancements and many of which may not even be workable at all. The above examples of tolerance of wasting company resources on innovative activities, are considered to be successful only with the full supports by innovative leadership, otherwise, a company will never justify wasting resources on non-workable ideas. Only when the leadership is willing to take such risk, then those innovative processes will be allowed in an organisation in the first place. It should be emphasized that risk-taking has to be performed in a climate with full extent of openness and trust, where staff dare to try new things without the fear of punishment for the failure, or possible defeats and wastes (eg. money, time) during the risk-taking process. 6.6 Freedom Ashforth and Humphrey (1995) state that freedom means allowing people to use their own consideration to evaluate and respond to particular event and situation during the activities of product and process developments. The freedom in an organisation, concerns whether an organisation can allow its people to decide the process to achieve the specific objectives. Creativity is a result of people where they are free to decide what technique they will use to reach the particular task. This will encourage a sense of motivation to create an ownership of what has been created. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google Inc, fundamentally believethat staff working on what they choose to work on, what theyre passionate about, have higher productivity than someone, whom is being directed and told what to do. It is a very central motto of innovation at Google. 7. Conclusion Just as the Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, innovation is about the peopleand how youre led. People are the key assets to an innovative organisation. No matter the size of a company, leadership is vital. Without a good leadership, an organisation will fall into chaos. Poor leaderships will have adverse effects on an organisation. Talent is scarce and creative people are highly in demand. Innovative leadership integrates innovation processes with talented people, in another word, to change organisation climate and deploy people to facilitate innovation in organisations through behaviours of leadership, by various leadership styles, or leadership priorities. Being visionary is a typical behaviour of an innovative leader. Innovation leader always has some visions of lifting up prospects of an organisation. In this sense, innovative leaders are necessarily innovators, who facilitate inventions to materialize their visions of better prospect of an organisation. Creating visionary strategy is t he fundamental task for an innovative leader that can guide the followers to think and behave in the right direction and can give the organisation a specific goal to achieve. It is up to the innovative leader to set clear and common goals. The defined goals must be unequivocally presented to the followers. An innovative leadership should have a quality of communication and more skills to manoeuvre within an organisation to create a favourable climate for innovation to strengthen the leadership itself. In other words, an innovation leader must be a good communicator, who can get his message across to his/her followers and motivate them to achieve common objectives through some creative processes. To promote innovation within an organisation, the leadership has to facilitate innovations among its people based on trust, support, openness, and risk taking. Since everyone has freedom to express ideas, it is unavoidable to have conflict between leadership and employees. Innovative leaders hip should be capable in turning debates to stimulation of innovative ideas and thoughts, at the same time, preventing and protecting employees from personal abuses. By doing things differently or in an unconventional way, an innovation organisation truly differs from other ordinary organisations. It is an encouragement for the followers that if the leaders behaviour is innovative. Within a group of people, most people imitate the behaviours of their leaders. The linkage between the role model and followers creativity is that the more creative behaviours the leader performs, the more creative their follower can produce in return. The successful innovations will also bind more followers to the leadership because of its respective contributions for innovation, or in other words, to encourage the innovation leadership and the innovative organisation to seek more innovative successes in the future. This cycle will further enhance intrinsic organisational climate for more innovations in order to facilitate competitive advantage and sustainable growth for the innovative organisation. References: Ashforth, B.E., Humphrey, R.H.,(1995). Emotions; Organisational-behavior; a reappraisal, Human Relations 48 (1995), pp. 97-125 Ashkanasy, N.M., Wilderom, C.P.M., Peterson. M.F. (2000). Handbook of Organisational Culture Climate. London, Sage publications, Inc. Bass, B. M. Riggio, R. E., (2008). Transformational leadership. New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc Carmeli, A., Schaubroeck, J., (2007). The influence of leaders and other refer

Labour Reforms in Brazil and Chile (a Comparative Study)

UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY COURSE COMPARATIVE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (MIR 709) TOPIC LABOUR REFORMS IN BRAZIL AND CHILE (A COMPARATIVE STUDY) A PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE DEPT OF SOCIOLOGY BY GROUP 4 Adepoju Janet Oluwatosin167455 Ayangbemi Olusola Temitope166905 Dagunduro Adebukola Olufunke167457 Ogunsemoyin Olubusayo B. 81014 LECTURER IN CHARGE: PROF. ONYEONORU P. I. OCTOBER, 2012 INTRODUCTION Labour laws is defined as the balance of power among government, employers, workers, and unions.The redrafting of a country’s labour laws typically reflects a shift in the power relations and may carry unfavourable consequences for a former beneficiaries. As the Colliers put it, â€Å"Labour law is a highly visible and concrete policy statement around which political battles are fought, won, and lost, and around which political support is attracted, granted, and withheld†¦ labour law thus provides a valuable point of reference for analyzing the larger political contex t† (Collier and Collier 1979, 971). The reform of national labour laws is one of the most widely implemented recent policy changes in the world.Since the early 1990s, Brazil as well as Chile have changed their labour laws. Labour reforms have also provoked massive protests, including general strikes. It can be understood that the changes in labour law occurring on a global scale are themselves a response to the pressure of globalization. In most nations of the world, labour legislation was originally made to reflect government-employer-worker relationships embedded in protected national economies. But in recent years, trade liberalization and greater global competitiveness have created new challenges for employers and workers.Pressures for legal and institutional change have naturally followed. This study is all about comparative insights into labour reform processes at the end of the twentieth century of two Latin American countries, Brazil and Chile. Despite similar initial prescriptions for change in the direction of greater flexibility, the outcomes of labour reforms differed in the two countries. In the 1990s, moderate flexibility reforms were implemented in Brazil while in Chile, changes in labour law was extensive.THE LATIN AMERICAN CONTEXT The region followed a common import substituting industrialization (ISI) model in the post-war period. This development strategy reshaped the Latin American economies, societies and institutions. While traditional interest groups linked to the primary sectors reduced their political influence, new social groups with interests in the local industries gained social and political strength. After some time, this inward-oriented development strategy began to show clear signs of exhaustion.The performance of Latin American countries was not good enough compared with the South-East Asian countries that claimed to adopt an almost opposite economic model. The political support of the ISI model was gradually eroding in L atin America when the debt crisis unleashed in 1982 and the failure of early policies implemented by some countries to deal with it played an important role in reshaping policy views in the region. Latin America of course is not homogeneous, but there are some structural characteristics common to most countries in the region that had a bearing on the reform process.The region’s competitive advantages are biased in favour of natural resources, and primary commodities explain a large share of exports: minerals and oil in Chile, Venezuela and Peru, agriculture in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay; even in more industrialized Brazil and Mexico primary products are still relevant. This feature impinges on the region’s political economy via the so-called natural resource â€Å"curse†. The distribution of income and assets in Latin America is highly unequal compared to other regions in the world.As the 2006 World Development Report of the World Bank suggests, income ine quality of this magnitude is quite likely a signal of unequal opportunities (rather than of different choices) – World Bank (2005). Because of the structural lack of equity, many Latin Americans did not have the chance to take advantage of the opportunities open by reform; hence many opportunities at the individual level were lost. Besides, groups that were marginalized and segregated did not support reform and often opposed it actively, fearing that a more competitive environment would do them more harm than good.In several of the countries, the so-called structural reforms came hand in hand with efforts at macroeconomic stabilization. There had been a long list of stabilization attempts before this period, but the macroeconomic stabilization programs that accompanied the structural reforms were usually deeper and lasted more than previous ones. The perception of greater deepness of these stabilization efforts was related to the simultaneous implementation of other component s of the reform package.Also, there have been important â€Å"contagion† effects across countries, that is, learning from the interpretation of the (successful and unsuccessful) experiences of other countries in the region. Having referred to many common factors, it is also important to stress that Latin American countries are quite different in many dimensions. Country size is obviously one of the dimensions in which the region is not homogeneous; a dimension that became particularly relevant for the fate of the inward oriented ISI model (think about the size of the domestic market in Brazil as compared for instance with Chile).Economic and social development show significant variation across countries as well. The historical starting points in terms of social and economic structure, as well as in the details of past policies, were also different in different countries when pro-market reforms began. Social indicators as literacy ratios, life expectancy and the like also show much variation. Even when most countries adopted a version of the ISI model in the post-war period, the progress they made in that direction varied considerably in terms, for instance, of the degree of industrialization they reached.This was partly dictated by the size of the domestic market and partly by policy options and political conditions. In spite of some common institutional heritage from the colonial era, political and institutional history also shows significant variation across countries in Latin America. Most countries in the region experienced periods of dictatorship in the twentieth century, but while some spent most of the century under those conditions, others did it for relatively short periods. The quality of institutions and the incidence of corruption also varies, Kaufmann, D. , A. Kraay and M. Mastruzzi (2003).The different starting points and idiosyncratic characteristics influenced the fate of the pro-market reform. BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Brazil The hist ory of Brazil starts with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, who arrived thousands of years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska and then moving south. The first European to explore Brazil was Pedro Alvares Cabral on April 22, 1500 under the sponsorship of Portugal. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Brazil was a colony of Portugal. On September 7, 1822, the country declared its independence from Portugal and became a constitutional monarchy, the Empire of Brazil.A military coup in 1889 established a republican government. The country has seen a dictatorship (1930–1934 and 1937–1945) and a period of military rule (1964–1985). Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, after more than two decades of uninterrupted military governments. The first democratic government unsuccessfully tried to stabilize the economy and made little progress with reform, but since 1990, when Collor de Mello arrived to the presidency, the successive democratic governments ca rried on a series of market-oriented reforms. It was argued that democratization facilitated the introduction of market oriented reforms in Brazil.While the military stayed in government, the protective mantle of â€Å"national security† and â€Å"key-sectors protection† became a standard speech, always blocking a deeper integration into the world economy. This ideological view was present not just at the top of the military regime but also inside the mid-level military officers who were commonly appointed to prominent positions in economic ministries and state enterprises. In the nineties, under democratic rule, a new breed of internationally-minded top civil servants replaced these officers.Reform in Brazil followed a pragmatic way, meaning that it was gradual, piecemeal, and loosely coordinated. Fragmentation of the political system prevented any group from gaining dominance and forced a negotiated style, leading to gradualism. So, most policies took time, were nego tiated, and had to go through multiple veto points. The informal institution of rather fluid ties among state elites and between them and business facilitated consensus building around reform policies, but they had to be negotiated. In this manner, the policy outcomes were unlikely to be extreme.The actual social and economic outcomes have not been too spectacular, and some discontent against â€Å"the reforms† has breaded. Yet, the arrival to office in 2003 of a left-wing party, the PT, has not generated any reversal, suggesting that â€Å"pragmatism† is not likely to be displaced soon in Brazilian economic policy making. Chile The territory of Chile has been populated since at least 12,000 ago. By the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors began to subdue and colonize the region of present-day Chile, and the territory became a colony from 1540 to 1818, when it gained independence from Spain.The country's economic development was successively marked by the export of firs t agricultural produce, then saltpetre and later copper. The wealth of raw materials led to an economic upturn, but also led to dependency, and even wars with neighbouring states. The country was governed during most of its first 150 years of independent life by different forms of restricted government, where the electorate was carefully vetted and controlled by an elite.Failure to address the economic and social disparities and increasing political awareness of the less-affluent population, as well as indirect intervention and economic funding to the main political groups by both the KGB and the CIA, as part of the Cold War, led to a political polarization under Socialist President Salvador Allende which in turn resulted in the 11 September 1973 coup and the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, whose 17- year regime was responsible for numerous human rights violations and deep market-oriented economic reforms.In 1990, Chile made a peaceful transition to democracy. Wit h ups and downs, Chile followed a basically inward-looking-state-centred development strategy from 1930 to 1973. It was not very different from the experience of other Latin American countries, save probably for the socialist period between 1971 and 1973. This period ended up with a severe socio-economic and political crisis that paved the road for a military coup that inaugurated a dictatorship that would last until the late eighties. The military government pushed a far reaching pro-market reform agenda.This experience is usually regarded as a leading case of market-friendly reforms, not only for the adoption of a shock therapy, but also for doing it well before most other countries in the region. Beginning in late 1973, several structural reforms were implemented, including the liberalization of most prices, interest rates and wages; drastic reductions in tariffs and the elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade; the strengthening of fiscal and monetary policies; the privatizat ion of more than 500 firms; the reform of the pension program; and the adoption of new policies of competition and regulation.In the early eighties, Chile, like other developing countries, underwent a deep economic and financial crisis. There was some reversal of reforms during this period, but the military government resumed the liberalizing reforms soon after it. Chile returned to democracy in 1990. One of the most notable aspects of the Chilean process is that after the return to democracy in 1990, the centre-left coalition that has governed the country since, did not revert the market reform process.There were several peculiar factors leading the military dictatorship to follow the suggestions of a group of foreign-trained economists towards market liberalization (against the nationalistic tendencies of part of the military). Some possible sources of opposition (such as unions or left leaning parties) were silenced by the dictatorship.Business sectors were relatively grateful si nce firms were devolved to private owners after nationalization by the previous socialist government of Allende, so that they did not oppose trade liberalization. The way the transition to democracy was instrumented in the late eighties was key for the consolidation of pro-market reforms in Chile. Consolidation was by no means granted by that time, for the parties that formed the winning coalition (named the Concertacion) in the 1989 elections had opposed many of the reforms.Also, formerly repressed interest groups could take advantage of the new political environment to voice their demands, pushing the new government towards a less neutral and more lenient fiscal policy. According to Foguel, Miguel, Indermit Gill, Rosane Mendonca and Ricardo Paes de Barros, (1998), several factors contributed to the consolidation of the pro-market reform in the transition period: * the good performance of the economy in 1985-1989; * the concurrent fall of socialist regimes in Europe; the economic f ailure of democratic transition in Argentina (that contributed to convince several left15 wing politicians of the risks of â€Å"heterodox† policies); * the intellectual renovation and internationalization of the circles around the Concertacion, which lead to a â€Å"revaluation of continuity†; and * several institutional enclaves in the new constitution, increasing the veto power and political relevance of â€Å"the right†, which forced democratic presidents to follow consensual strategies on economic matters. Chile seems to be in a path of institutional and policy consolidation.The democratic governments have maintained the core of the economic reforms undertaken during the dictatorship, while steadily (albeit slowly, according to some views) advancing on the social and democratic front. These steps have taken place according to a style of policymaking that is much more consensual and institutionalized than that of other Latin American countries. (IADB, 2005). EVOLUTION OF LABOUR REFORM IN BRAZIL The Consolidated Labour Code The main body of the Brazilian labour legislation was introduced in the 1940s, and consolidated into the Consolidacao das Leis do Trabalho (CLT) in 1943.The CLT is a large, often overlapping, set of rules which determines individual and collective rights and duties of the workers, unions and firms. The law determines that all workers must have a booklet where all individual labour contracts and its changes over time are registered by the employer. By definition, a formal worker has a booklet signed by his employer (â€Å"carteira assinada†) Besides the obligation to sign the booklet, the law stipulates a set of minimum conditions any employment relationship must follow.The most important rules are: maximum hours of work per week; maximum extra-time working hours; minimum payment for extra-time work; minimum wage; pre-paid annual vacations; special protection clauses for women and children; the dismissal of pre gnant women is forbidden; the right of paid vacation before and after childbirth, for the mother; special work conditions for night shifts; one month pre-notification of firing; and protection against unjustified dismissals. There have been changes in the legislation since the creation of the CLT. In particular: In 1962, introduction of a one monthly wage annual bonus (â€Å"thirteenth salary†).In 1963, introduction of a family allowance. In 1965, introduction of a wage adjustment law which determined the minimum rate of wage adjustments of all workers in the economy. In 1966, creation of a severance fund (Fundo de Garantia por Tempo de Servico – FGTS) in place of a clause forbidding dismissal of workers with more than 10 years of tenure. In 1986, creation of an unemployment insurance program which today covers about 25% of the country’s labour force. In 1988, approval of a new Constitution with the introduction of new labour clauses. Severance Rules and Unemplo yment CompensationUntil 1965, to fire a worker without a proper justification the employer had to pay one month’s wage for each year of work in the firm. The compensation was calculated on the basis of the higher wage received during the work contract. It was a duty of the employer to prove the dismissal was justified, and the conditions for justified dismissals were clearly defined in the law. After 10 years in the same enterprise, dismissals were forbidden by law, except if properly justified. In 1966, this entire system of protection against non-justified dismissals was changed.A severance fund was created, called the Fundo de Garantia por Tempo de Servico (FGTS). When hiring a worker, the firm had to open a banking account for the worker and deposit 8% of the value of the wage in the account. Today, Caixa Economica Federal, a government saving and loans institution, collects the FGTS levy and invests it primarily in urban housing projects giving workers a legally guarante ed minimum deposit rate. When dismissed without a just cause (â€Å"sem justa causa†) the worker could draw this money and received a monetary compensation corresponding to a fine of 10% over the total amount of the fund.Like many other Latin American countries (see Loayza, 1998), dismissal for economic reasons is not considered a just cause. In 1988 the fine for unjust dismissal was increased to 40% of the worker’s FGTS account balance. Besides this fine, the employer has to notify the worker one month before he will be fired. This is the â€Å"aviso previo† law, or previous notification of firing. During the month the worker has received the previous notification of firing, he/she is allowed, according to the law, to take two hours a day to look for a new job.This implies a minimum cost of 25% of the worker's monthly wage. In fact the cost is usually higher since firms end up paying the notification fee to the worker and dismissing him immediately. Thus, the t otal cost of dismissal is 25% to 100% of the monthly wage plus 40% of the FGTS. The cost depends on the number of months the worker has worked for the firm. Since 1986, when fired, besides the advance notice, access to the FGTS (and the 40% fine for unfair dismissal), the worker also has the right to an unemployment compensation benefits.The unemployment compensation program offers partial coverage for up to four months of unemployment (extended to five months after 1996). To become eligible to receive the benefit, the worker must meet the following criteria: * to have been dismissed without a just cause; * to have had a formal labour contract during the last six months or to have been legally self-employed for at least 15 months; * to be unemployed for at least seven days; * must not receive any other pension; * must not have any other type of income sufficient to guarantee his own subsistence and that of his family.The value of the benefit cannot be lower than the value of the min imum wage, is adjusted monthly for inflation, and is related to the average wage received by the worker in the last three months in the previous job. Wage Laws An important change in the CLT was the introduction of the Wage Adjustment Law in 1965. Before this date, wage adjustments were fixed through collective bargaining between workers and employers unions, at the settlement dates (â€Å"data base†), and through individual negotiations between one worker and his/her employer.Only the minimum wage was determined directly by the President of the Republic, although most of the time it incorporated automatically the prescriptions given by indexation clauses imbedded in the Law. The Wage Adjustment Law gave the government the right to determine the minimum rate of adjustment of all wages in the formal sector of the economy. The first wage law stipulated that nominal wages should be adjusted once a year, at the settlement date of each occupation, following a formula which took th e past and expected future rate of inflation and the growth rate in GDP per capita as the base for the adjustments.The specific formula and the adjustment period changed many times over the years, as the rate of inflation increased. In 1995, one year after the introduction of the Real Plan, the Wage Law was abolished. Today, upward adjustment of wages is negotiated between employers and employees. But downward adjustment of wages is for all practical purposes prohibited by the Constitution: attempts to do so make employers open to lawsuits, which are generally resolved in favor of the worker.This was irrelevant during a time of high inflation, but now quite possibly adds to the rigidity of the labour market. The Reforms of 1988 The main changes of labour legislation introduced in the Constitution of 1988 can be summarized as follows: * The maximum number of hours of work per week was reduced from 48 to 44 hours and the minimum payment for extra-time hours increased from 20% to 50% o f the workers’ wages. * For continuous work shifts the maximum daily journey was reduced from eight to six hours. * A vacation bonus of one-third of the workers’ wages was created. The childbirth leave for mothers was increased to 120 days and a five days childbirth leave for the father was introduced. * Firing costs for unjustified dismissals increased from 10% of the FGTS balance to 40%. This is the list of the minimum individual rights for private sector and state enterprise workers. Working conditions can be improved through negotiations between the individual worker and the firm, or through collective bargaining. The Constitution of 1988 clearly mandated higher nonwage benefits and made dismissals costlier for employers. Payroll Taxes and Mandatory Benefits after 1988The CLT and the 1988 Constitution stipulate a very comprehensive set of minimum standards any individual contract must follow. The rules do not provide much space for negotiations between employers an d workers. The result is a rigid set of minimum rules, which reduces the flexibility of the labour contract in face of changes in the economic environment. In addition to the costs imposed by this inflexibility, there are more direct and obvious non-wage costs due to payroll taxes and mandatory benefits required by the law. The cost of labour can be decomposed into four parts: The basic contractual wage. * Mandatory benefits which include the annual one month bonus (terceiro salario), the contribution to the FGTS, vacations and other benefits. * Contributions to the official training system (SENAI and SENAC), to finance an institution which assist small enterprises (SEBRAE) and a contribution paid by firms to finance an workers’ assistance service (SESI or SESC). * Contribution to the federal social security system (INSS) and to fund educational services salario educacao) and an on-the-job accident insurance fee mandatory for all firms and proportional to the payroll.In addit ion to these contributions based on payroll costs, employers are also charged levies on revenues to pay for additional INSS-related obligations (Cofins), to be raised in 1999 from 1 to 2 percent and PIS/PASEP, the contributions towards the Fundo de Aparelho de Trabalhadores (FAT) which fund unemployment compensation, job search assistance and active labour programs such as training and microenterprise support schemes. These labour related levies can add up to between 2 and 3 percent of employer revenues. EVOLUTION OF LABOUR REFORM IN CHILE Labour Code (1931-1965)Initially, Chile’s labour market regulations is characterized with tripartite system of collective bargaining and conflict resolution. 1931 labour code focuses on conflict resolution. While the legislation favoured collective bargaining at the firm level, and this form of negotiations was dominant, the mechanisms of conflict resolution projected negotiations beyond the enterprise. With time, sector-wide negotiations s pread throughout the economy. Dismissal without expression of cause with a month’s notice. Severance payment of a month’s wage per year of tenure for â€Å"white collar workers.The main component of payroll taxes are social security contributions. Chile started a Social Security System in 1924, building from a set of privately established pensions systems that covered specific groups of workers or sectors of economic activity. These programs finance retirement, invalidity and family survivor benefits, a public health care system, the payment of family allowances, and an unemployment subsidy. In addition, there was a 1 % contribution to fund public training programs. The Chile labour market reform has come a long way and in each stage undergone few reforms to meet the demand of the changing market conditions.After the deadly coup of 1973, several labour unions, labour institutions were dissolved. In October, 1973, the Chilean government introduced wage adjustments, whi ch were linked to inflation rate. Chile labour market reform is significant because of the following reasons: * The country underwent a switch over from an economy, which was regulated to an economy, which is unregulated as well as open. This was brought about by the implementation of economic reforms pertaining to labour markets and pension system in the country. * The labour market in Chile has been over the years very unpredictable.Labour market in Chile during the seventies: During the middle seventies, the government in Chile launched the first structural reforms in Chile. Which in turn increased the unemployment rate. However, Chile experienced a healthy growth in the economy towards the end of seventies. Despite the speedy growth in economy, the labour market refused to recover from the high rate of unemployment. Reverse to what it was during the seventies, the labour market in the eighties recuperated very fast even though the crisis was much more severe than the previous on e. Even rate of growth in wages recovered comparatively fast.During this period, rate of unemployment reached 25%. As part of Chile labour market reform, the proportional adjustments pertaining to lower wages was made more than the higher wages. The method of indexation that existed between 1973 to 1979 had many drawbacks. In order to overcome these drawbacks, Labour Plan of 1979, was implemented, which stated that adjustment of wages would be made at or above inflation rate. At regular intervals, as part of Chile labour market reform, the government carried on with the practice of increasing wages but not in accordance with the rising rate of inflation.However, during the 1990s, there was increase in wages higher than what was declared for the purpose of readjustments. The Employment Security Law, states that if there is no valid cause for dismissing an employee, the worker could be re engaged in the job as per orders from a labour court. However, in the year 1978, this law was sub stituted by a method of â€Å"severance payment†. Chile labour market reform, Decree Law 2,200 stated that employers had the right to make changes in the contract between the employers as well as the employees and that they could fire an employee without giving any explanation to the employees.A â€Å"severance payment†, which was minimum was also introduced. Decree Law 2,200 as well as Chile labour market reform of 1979, led to the introduction of new techniques to supervise the activities of the labour unions. This was stated in Decree Law, 2,756. Collective bargaining was stated in Decree Law 2,758. Decree Law 2,756 and Decree Law 2,758 are collectively referred to as Labour Plan. Decree Law 2,756 governs matters related to labour union. Whereas, Decree law, 2,758 governs the various norms adopted in the event of a strike.Labour reforms that took place in Chile is summarized below; Phase I (1966-73) Increased polarization of the labour movement Generalized use of wa ge indexation. Dismissals require expression of â€Å"just† cause, or severance payment of a month’s wage per year of tenure. In spite of very high nominal contribution rates, by 1970 the public sector spent 20. 5 percent of its budget to cover the deficits in the health and pensions systems along with its own contributions. Phase II (1974-79) Economic Liberalization with a highly intervened labour market.Decree Law 670 of October 1974 substituted the earlier legislation that defined the tripartite commissions, giving them a consultative character. They were understood to be a transition mechanism, while a new policy towards the labour market was developed, and while union activities were banned.. Economy-wide wage adjustments imposed by decree. Dismissal without expression of cause reinstated in 1978 for all new hires. Employers pay a severance of a month’s wage per year of tenure to all dismissed workers, unless there is â€Å"just cause,† which include s â€Å"economic cause. A number of partial changes brought down contributions from a 60 percent at their peak in 1974, to the order of 33 percent in 1980. Rates varied according to the specific plan at which an employee was affiliated, but all the plans were guaranteed by the state. For example, in 1976, the 1% contribution earmarked to fund training program was eliminated. Phase III (1980-1990) Union affiliation becomes voluntary. Decentralized collective bargaining. Labour negotiations opened to market forces. Strikes without job guarantees after sixty days.No intervention of the government in the affairs of unions or the collective bargaining process, except for a wage floor guaranteed by law. The wage floor was eliminated in 1982, and as a by-product, the necessary conditions to replace striking workers were eroded. It also marked the era of minimum wage setting. Starting in 1981, dismissals of any worker, new or previously hired, can take place without expression of cause, an d as long as severance is paid. Severance payments are open to negotiations. In the absence of an explicit agreement the minimum severance would be a month wages per year of tenure with a 5 months ceiling.A 1984 reform established that the minimum severance agreed by the parties could not be less than the severance established by law. Furthermore, â€Å"economic cause† for dismissal is not â€Å"just cause† anymore. In 1980, a reform lowered social security contributions to just above 20 percent (10 % towards retirement, 7% towards health and about 3% towards disability). New entrants to the labour force would contribute to a new old-age program based on a mandated individualized savings plan, to be managed by private administrators (AFPs).Old contributors could to opt out of the traditional pay-as-you-go system. In the case of health care contributions, both old contributors and new entrants were given the choice to opt out of the public system (FONASA) and use the 7 percent towards a health care insurance policy provided by an authorized private health insurer (ISAPRES). A basic pension, the unemployment insurance, and the family allowances programs would be fully financed by the central government budget. Phase IV (1991 till date) This is the Consolidation of Labour Reforms.The new law eliminated the sixty days period for the legal strike, which allowed employers to dismiss striking workers without severance. The new law also reinstated stricter conditions for workers replacements in case of strike. Labour negotiations can take place at the sector level if both workers and employers agree to it. Dismissals require an expression of â€Å"cause†. Severance of one month wages per year of tenure applies to dismissals with â€Å"economic cause. † Severance would be paid with a 20% surcharge if the employer cannot prove an alleged â€Å"economic cause. No severance obligation in case of dismissals with â€Å"just cause. † Dismi ssal ceiling on severance payment raised to 11 month wages. THEMES ON LABOUR REFORM DISCUSSION The thematic elements under which labour reforms that occurred in the two Latin American countries under study will be discussed will focus on the labour’s strategic interest in labour law and its ability to pursue those interest during specific rounds of reform. These interests are derived from the legal and institutional framework of labour relations, which are often inherited from earlier period of legal and political incorporation of labour.Secondly is the willingness of government to see reform through. Government resolve is shaped by the pressure for the reform that it faces from international actors or domestic constituencies. Another thematic approach is the transition context for the reform. The nature of transitions as well as their timing affects the political environment for labour reform. Democratic transitions tend to favour rights-based reforms and strengthen unions, while market-oriented economic transitions tend to favour labour flexibility and weaken unions.The Initiation of the Reforms The crisis of the ISI model in the sixties and seventies left Latin American leaders searching for new paradigms. In this context, the pro-market reform agenda began to gain strength, initially pushed by groups of professional economists trained in the US, and reinforced later in the eighties and nineties by the IFIs. The experience of Thatcher in the UK and the fall of communism also contributed to create an environment favourable to pro-market reform. In some countries, these new ideas got through to the ruling army forces.Chile was the leading case, after a short socialist experience that ended with a military coup. Other countries only began the reform process in the early nineties, after suffering severe macroeconomic instability in the eighties. By that time, Chile had already become an example of a successful reformer that many wanted to reproduce. The debt crisis that blew up in the early eighties gave place to a decade characterized by severe macroeconomic instability in most countries in the region. There were several attempts at eterodox macroeconomic stabilization that failed completely. Brazil is probably one of the most distinctive cases. The pro-market structural reforms were out of the agenda in those years in most Latin American countries. Even in Chile, the debt crisis caused a partial and temporary reversion of the pro-market labour reform. It was only after these policies ended up in hyperinflation that the idea of implementing more orthodox stabilization programs bundled with structural pro-market reforms made its way through in the region in the early nineties.In the 1980s and 1990s, several democratic political leaders who gained elections proposing leftwing platforms ended up adopting the market-friendly package. Some of these presidents were concerned by little more than their political survival in the midst of i mpending or ongoing macroeconomic crises, and were pretty much open to â€Å"anything† that might deliver some short-term economic results that could lead to favourable political results for them. They ended up convinced that some variant of the market-friendly package was the most sensible option they had.Implementation Recent literature on reform emphasizes the key role of appropriate implementation and enforcement capacity to determine the outcome of reform (Stein and Tommasi 2005; Rius and van de Walle, 2004; Fanelli and Popov, 2003). It is considered that while the best designed policy packages may generate bad outcomes if implementation fails, policies that are not first-best in terms of design may still render acceptable results if they are well implemented (IADB, 2005).The quality of public policies in terms of enforcement and implementation varies considerably across the Latin American countries. Stein and Tommasi (2005) classified the Latin American countries in sev eral key dimensions of their economic policies, one of them being the capacity to enforce and effectively implement the policies. Of the two Latin American countries considered in this paper, Chile appears as the one with quite high enforcement and implementation capacity; Brazil has intermediate capability with implementation quality.The enforcement and implementation capacities are in turn related to the quality and independence of the bureaucracy, the quality and independence of the judiciary, and the capabilities of the Congress. Stein and Tommasi (2005) show that the index of enforcement and implementation capacity is positively correlated to indexes of congress capability, judicial independence and civil service development across these two Latin American countries. An independent and highly qualified judicial system is probably the most obvious enforcer of the laws.Delegating the implementation of policies to a professional and independent bureaucracy is also a good enforceme nt device. Chumacero et al (2005) claim that the Chilean military government that initially pushed the pro-market reform replaced the existing bureaucracy with a strong technocracy that contributed to improve the implementation and enforcement capacities of the State. Brazil followed a different route in that reformers did not replace the existing bureaucracy, Castelar Pinheiro, A. , R. Bonelli and B. Ross Schneider (2004).Nevertheless, Brazil already had a relatively good bureaucracy before the pro-market reform era. This allowed the government to delegate the implementation of trade liberalization and privatization to autonomous agencies, which according to Castelar Pinheiro et al (2004), was key for the advance of these reforms. Stakeholders The labour movement was more independent from the State and from the parties that ended up being reformist. In Brazil and Chile, trade unions would not favour pro-market reform, but they were forbidden in Chile when the reform began and relat ively weak in Brazil (Castelar Pinheiro et al).Labour movements in Brazil retained some degree of organizational strength, mobilization capacity and political influence, and were therefore able to fight off some of the reforms that were aimed at expanding labour market flexibility. They fought hard against the loss of core organizational resources as well as legal provisions regarding union structure and collective bargaining. In Chile, economic labour reforms occurred mostly under the dictatorship, along with labour code changes, the prospect for expanding labour rights under the democratic transition were limited.The issue of labour reform lies at the core of this disjuncture as it straddles major fault lines innate to the Chilean neoliberal project. On the one hand, cheap and flexible labour with few rights to collective action has formed a central axis of Chile’s economic model since Pinochet’s ruthless undermining of organised labour in the mid-1970s. This oppress ion was given a tangible legal form in the 1980 labour code that denied even the most basic of rights to the working population. Labour movements in Chile was pressured to moderate its demands during transition.Furthermore, labour ties to parties in power under the concertacion further constrained the movements ability to assert demands for reforms in the first-round democratic government. In summary, in Brazil political stability is a contextual premium, a potential threat to that stability came from the labour movement. By contrast, in Chile, the prime concern was economic stability. Unfortunately, labour mobilization was constrained by political compromises and organizational factors. The economic elites were the ones to be appeased.Capitalist interests, institutionally represented by the Confederacion de Produccion y Commercio (CPC), have strongly opposed any substantive changes to the labour code. They argue that, by impinging on labour market flexibility, reforms to the labour code would undermine the foundations of domestic accumulation to the detriment of all Chileans Inclusiveness of the Political Process behind the Reforms In Brazil, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso negotiated the pro-market reform along several years, and there was no reversal, even after the opposition took office.Reform was very gradual and partial, mostly due to the effective inclusion of opposition parties and social groups in the negotiation of reform. This participation slowed down reform, but it can be argued that it also contributed to render the economic policy more predictable. Political participation might not only contribute to reform because it reduces resistance, but also because it promotes a more open society in which special interests find themselves more constrained. Chile is a case in which the bulk of the reform process took place under the Pinochet dictatorship.Yet, the decision of the successive incoming democratic governments of sustaining the main aspects of the market-oriented reforms, together with the consensual and institutionalized policymaking style with which modifications and adjustments have proceeded, has tended to generate an increasingly virtuous circle between reforms, democratic participation, and transparency. CONCLUDING REMARKS This paper attempted to extract some lessons from the reform experiences of the selected Latin American countries, on the basis of underlying country studies.That exercise led, in its central section, to reflections on several key themes in the political economy of reform, reflections which themselves had some elements of â€Å"concluding remarks†. For that reason, this final section is relatively brief, and instead of recapitulating everything said before, it just draws from a few points in order to take a (succinct) prospective look. The early evaluations of the impact of market oriented reforms were far more optimistic than later ones.The present political dynamics of these countries suggests that the fate of reforms is correlated with the outcomes of reform, and that both in turn are correlated with more slow-moving (not to say, permanent) â€Å"fundamental† local conditions, in particular with local institutional conditions. The ranking of both countries in terms of reform outcomes, and reform continuity and sustainability is almost identical to a ranking of State Capabilities developed by Stein and Tommasi at the Inter-American Development Bank, reflected in Stein and Tommasi (2005) and IADB (2005).Perhaps the main lesson we extract from the experience at this point, is that in democratic settings it is not a good strategy to impose reforms from above or by surprise. Consensus building operating through the social and political specificities of the country is not only a better way to achieve the desired reforms, but even a process for identifying and implementing policies and reforms more suitable for each country. The capacity of countries to achieve such processes seems conditioned by their political institutions and policymaking capabilities.REFERENCE Aguilera-Alfred, N. , D. Borda and D. Richards (2004) â€Å"Understanding Reform. The Predatory State and Economic Reform: An Examination of Paraguay’s Political Economic Transition†, Global Development Network, Mimeo. Castelar Pinheiro, A. , R. Bonelli and B. Ross Schneider (2004) â€Å"Pragmatism and the Political Economy of Market Reform in Brazil†, Global Development Network, Mimeo. Chumacero, R. , R. Fuentes, R. Luders and J. Vial (2005) â€Å"Understanding Chilean Reforms†, Global Development Network, Mimeo. Collier, Ruth Berins, and David Collier. 1979.Inducements versus Constraints: Disaggregating â€Å"Corporatism. † American Political Science Review 73, 4: 967-86 Fanelli, J. M. and V. Popov (2003). On the Philosophical, Political and Methodological Underpinnings of Reform. Global Development Network. Inter-American Development Bank (20 05) The Politics of Policies. Economic and Social Progress in Latin America and the Caribbean 2006 Report. Kaufmann, D. , A. Kraay and M. Mastruzzi (2003) â€Å"Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996-2002. † World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3106, Washington DC: The World Bank.Rius, A. and N. van de Walle (2003) â€Å"Political Insitutions and Economic Policy Reform†, Thematic Paper for the Global Research Project on Understanding Reform, Global Development Network. Schneider, B. R. (2004) â€Å"Organizing Interests and Coalitions in the Politics of Market Reform in Latin America† World Politics 56 (April), 456-79. Stein, E. and M. Tommasi (2005) â€Å"Political Institutions, Policymaking Processes, and Policy Outcomes. A Comparison of Latin American Cases†, Inter-American Development Bank, Mimeo. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Military_government_of_Chile_

Surprising Facts About Topics for Autobiographical Essay Uncovered by Industry Leaders

Surprising Facts About Topics for Autobiographical Essay Uncovered by Industry Leaders Once you have written your text, it's the opportunity to read it to find out what mistakes ought to be fixed and what things can be made better in your work. This book will feature a few of the females who've been pioneers in my personal field (Microbiology). Therefore, be ready for the simple fact your autobiography ought to be written by you by hand in the existence of the HR manager, and not submitted in ready-printed form. This autobiography example is ideal for both college and higher school students. Autobiography is the sort of document that may emotionally win the interest of prospective employer, so allocate enough time and effort to compose this document. The primary aim of the autobiographical essay is to demonstrate your individual qualities and abilities that will impress an admissions board. Regardless of what piece of writing you are assigned at your institution, the comprehensive paper has to be interesting to read. Ruthless Topics for Autobiographical Essay Strategies Exploited Narrative essays serve wide range of purposes. Virtually all writers seek the expert services of copy editors. The introduction is just one of the most essential parts since it is the point where the reader receives the very first impression of you. Regardless of the simple fact that you compose a story about yourself, you still must adhere to some requirements and build a very good structure of the essay. Even a fundamental autobiography outline can help you remain on track, stay organized, and save a lot of time. Make certain that you comply with the set instructions keenly. Distinct varieties of autobiographies serve various purposes. Once you know which to use, you can get online and find more info about the particular requirements for the format. Make the reader want to read the entire essay in 1 breath. Keep in mind this essay isn't the exact same thing for a CV or resume. Generally, an autobiographical sketch is simply an easy essay. Picking the topic for your essay could be the hardest part. The outline makes it possible to create a structure, produce ideas and allow you not to forget. Last, you've got to produce an outline of your upcoming essay. Be conscious of the size it must be and begin writing the narrative essay outline. In the same way as any other outline an autobiographical research paper outline is going to be 1. The Good, the Bad and Topics for Autobiographical Essay An autobiography isn't a straight story of your entire life. Thirdly, it can help you decide what work you need. This kind of autobiography describes a particular portion of your life. Writing an autobiography is an ambitious and intriguing work. If you wish to tell your readers about a definite period of your life, pick a genre of memoir. Take advantage of these themes as frequently as you are able to in order to form a consistent depiction of your story. Thus, when you plan your autobiography, be sure you concentrate on events that had significant effect on your life and totally ignore the tidbits. You may write about your accomplishments but in addition, you need to compose the flaws that have made you exactly what you are. There's a writing craft or a technique that is able to make your story come to life. If you compose the life story of some other person, that's referred to as a biography. So, it's a significant foundation for assorted epic stories! If you don't understand how to compose an autobiography in the suitable way it's time to learn from the very best writing examples. Topics for Autobiographical Essay - Overview A great idea is to write about either a terrific accomplishment or a difficult challenge you've faced. Even a single conversation may make a difference. There is but one topic you. Lies You've Been Told About Topics for Autobiographical Essay Our lives are simply a little part of the complete picture. If you're a student, your life story may not be that long. An autobiography is a good means to tell men and women in exactly the same situation that there's a way out. An excellent autobiography creates a particular image of the individual and shows how events in their li fe have formed the person as a person. A country is similar to man's shelter. Let other people read your work An outside or second opinion will be required to be certain your work would attract all. When written, there will be as many life stories as there are they. From the sample you are able to learn how to describe your own character and abilities for those who still don't know anything about you.

ROSS Surname Meaning and Family History

The Ross surname has Gaelic origins and, depending upon the origin of the family, could have several different meanings: From ros, a peninsula, isthmus, or promontory signifying someone who lived on a headland.From rhos, Welsh for moor or bog; signifying someone who lived near a moor.From rose and rosh, signifying a valley or dale between hills.A descriptive name from the Middle English rous, meaning red-haired.A habitational name for one who came from the district of Ross, in Scotland.  Or from Rots near Caen in Normandy. Ross is the 89th most popular surname in the United States. Surname Origin:  English, Scottish Alternate Surname Spellings:  ROSSE, ROS Famous People With the Surname ROSS Betsy Ross (born  Griscom):  widely credited with making the first American flagMarion Ross: American actress; best known for her role as Mrs. C on the 1970s sitcom Happy DaysNellie Ross (born Tayloe): first woman in the U.S. to serve as governor, and the first to direct the U.S. mint Where the Ross Surname Is Most Common According to surname distribution from  Forebears, the Ross surname today is most prevalent in the United States but is found in the greatest numbers (based on population percentage) in Scotland. It ranks as the 1,083rd most common surname in the world—and ranks among the top 100 surnames in Scotland (14th), Canada (36th), New Zealand (59th), Australia (69th) and the United States (79th). Surname maps from  WorldNames PublicProfiler  indicate slightly different numbers from Forebears, putting the Ross surname as most common in Australia and New Zealand, based on frequency per million people. Within Scotland, the Ross surname is found in the greatest numbers in northern Scotland, including the Highlands, Aberdeenshire, Moray, and Angus. Genealogy Resources for the Surname  Ross 100 Most Common U.S. Surnames Their Meanings: Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown... Are you one of the millions of Americans sporting one of these top 100 common last names from the 2000 census?Ross DNA Project: The Ross Family DNA Project seeks to use Y-DNA testing in combination with traditional genealogy research to enable Ross families to determine if they share a common ancestor with other Ross families.  This project welcomes all derivatives of the surname (Ross, Ros, etc.).Ross  Family Crest - Its Not What You Think: Contrary to what you may hear, there is no such thing as a Ross  family crest or coat of arms for the Ross surname.  Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families, and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male-line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted.ROSS  Family Genealogy Forum: Search this popular genealogy forum for the Ross  surname to find others who might be researching your ancestor s, or post your own Ross query.FamilySearch - ROSS  Genealogy: Explore over 5.2  million  results from digitized  historical records and lineage-linked family trees related to the Ross surname and variations on this free website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.GeneaNet - Ross  Records: GeneaNet includes archival records, family trees, and other resources for individuals with the Ross surname, with a concentration on records and families from France and other European countries.The Ross Genealogy and Family Tree Page: Browse genealogy records and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the Ross surname from the website of Genealogy Today. References Cottle, Basil.  Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.Dorward, David.  Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998.Fucilla, Joseph.  Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.Hanks, Patrick, and Flavia Hodges.  A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick.  Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.Reaney, P.H.  A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997.Smith, Elsdon C.  American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.