Download or read book Reforming the Russian Industrial Workplace written by Elena Shulzhenko and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on extensive original research, this book explores how far the Soviet pattern of industrial workplace organisation, characterised by a high level of management discretion, authoritarian control and the use of punitive methods on the shop-floor, has been replaced by internationally established practices, with a greater emphasis on a lean organisation and employee involvement in quality improvement. The book explores how the market reforms of the 1990s raised companies’ attention to product quality but did not lead to a change in the management methods, which only began with the increased internationalisation of the Russian economy in the 2000s. The book includes a rich in-depth study of multinational and domestic companies, and argues that a move from the Soviet pattern of workplace organisation to new practices is only likely to occur in companies with strong ties to international partners, who provide support for, and audit the implementation and upholding of, international management standards. The research shows that local companies not exposed to such international collaboration continue with the old methods.

Download or read book Reforming the Russian Industrial Workplace written by Elena Shulzhenko and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on extensive original research, this book explores how far the Soviet pattern of industrial workplace organisation, characterised by a high level of management discretion, authoritarian control and the use of punitive methods on the shop-floor, has been replaced by internationally established practices, with a greater emphasis on a lean organisation and employee involvement in quality improvement. The book explores how the market reforms of the 1990s raised companies’ attention to product quality but did not lead to a change in the management methods, which only began with the increased internationalisation of the Russian economy in the 2000s. The book includes a rich in-depth study of multinational and domestic companies, and argues that a move from the Soviet pattern of workplace organisation to new practices is only likely to occur in companies with strong ties to international partners, who provide support for, and audit the implementation and upholding of, international management standards. The research shows that local companies not exposed to such international collaboration continue with the old methods.

Download or read book The Piratization of Russia written by Marshall I. Goldman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-04-10 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1991, a small group of Russians emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union and enjoyed one of the greatest transfers of wealth ever seen, claiming ownership of some of the most valuable petroleum, natural gas and metal deposits in the world. By 1997, five of those individuals were on Forbes Magazine's list of the world's richest billionaires.

Download or read book Why Doesn t Russian Industry Work written by Leonid I︠A︡novich Kosals and published by teNeues. This book was released on 1994-12-31 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work on the industrial sociology of the USSR examines how the structure of Soviet bureaucracy prevents industry making technical innovations, even though individual managers, using their initiative, try to introduce them. The author argues that this restraint on new inventions is an important cause of the failure of Soviet industry in recent years, and illustrates his points with case studies from a range of Siberian industries, which have been recently hit by strikes.

Download or read book Without a Map written by Andrei Shleifer and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A balanced look at Russia's attempts to build capitalism on the ruins of Soviet central planning. Recent commentators on Russia's economic reforms have almost uniformly declared them a disappointing and avoidable--failure. In this book, two American scholars take a new and more balanced look at the country's attempts to build capitalism on the ruins of Soviet central planning. They show how and why the Russian reforms achieved remarkable breakthroughs in some areas but came undone in others. Unlike Eastern European countries such as Poland or the Czech Republic, to which it is often compared, Russia is a federal, ethnically diverse, industrial giant with an economy heavily oriented toward raw materials extraction. The political obstacles it faced in designing reforms were incomparably greater. Shleifer and Treisman tell how Russia's leaders, navigating in uncharted economic terrain, managed to find a path around some of these obstacles. In successful episodes, central reformers devised a strategy to win over some key opponents, while dividing and marginalizing others. Such political tactics made possible the rapid privatization of 14,000 state enterprises in 1992-1994 and the defeat of inflation in 1995. But failure to outmaneuver the new oligarchs and regional governors after 1996 undermined reformers' attempts to collect taxes and clean up the bureaucracy that has stifled business growth.Renewing a strain of analysis that runs from Machiavelli to Hirschman, the authors reach conclusions about political strategies that have important implications for other reformers. They draw on their extensive knowledge of the country and recent experience as advisors to Russian policymakers. Written in an accessible style, the book should appeal to economists, political scientists, policymakers, businesspeople, and all those interested in Russian politics or economics.

Download or read book Putin s Labor Dilemma written by Stephen Crowley and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Putin's Labor Dilemma, Stephen Crowley investigates how the fear of labor protest has inhibited substantial economic transformation in Russia. Putin boasts he has the backing of workers in the country's industrial heartland, but as economic growth slows in Russia, reviving the economy will require restructuring the country's industrial landscape. At the same time, doing so threatens to generate protest and instability from a key regime constituency. However, continuing to prop up Russia's Soviet-era workplaces, writes Crowley, could lead to declining wages and economic stagnation, threatening protest and instability. Crowley explores the dynamics of a Russian labor market that generally avoids mass unemployment, the potentially explosive role of Russia's monotowns, conflicts generated by massive downsizing in "Russia's Detroit" (Tol'yatti), and the rapid politicization of the truck drivers movement. Labor protests currently show little sign of threatening Putin's hold on power, but the manner in which they are being conducted point to substantial chronic problems that will be difficult to resolve. Putin's Labor Dilemma demonstrates that the Russian economy must either find new sources of economic growth or face stagnation. Either scenario—market reforms or economic stagnation—raises the possibility, even probability, of destabilizing social unrest.

Download or read book Russia s Great Reforms 1855 1881 written by Ben Eklof and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1994-06-22 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Reforms undertaken during the reign of Alexander II represented a unique attempt by the tsarist government to restructure virtually every aspect of Russian life, beginning with the emancipation of the serfs and continuing through reforms of local government, the judiciary, the military, education, the financial system, censorship, and other domains. This volume, the work of an international group of scholars that includes historians from Russia, maps out the major landmarks in the conceptualization and implementation of the Great Reforms during the reign of Alexander II and proposes a variety of perspectives from which to view them. -- From publisher's description.

Download or read book Everyday Post Socialism written by Jeremy Morris and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a rich ethnographic account of blue-collar workers’ everyday life in a central Russian industrial town coping with simultaneous decline and the arrival of transnational corporations. Everyday Post-Socialism demonstrates how people manage to remain satisfied, despite the crisis and relative poverty they faced after the fall of socialist projects and the social trends associated with neoliberal transformation. Morris shows the ‘other life’ in today’s Russia which is not present in mainstream academic discourse or even in the media in Russia itself. This book offers co-presence and a direct understanding of how the local community lives a life which is not only bearable, but also preferable and attractive when framed in the categories of ‘habitability’, commitment and engagement, and seen in the light of alternative ideas of worth and specific values. Topics covered include working-class identity, informal economy, gender relations and transnational corporations.

Download or read book Privatizing Russia written by Maxim Boycko and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1997-01-22 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Privatizing Russia offers an inside look at one of the most remarkable reforms in recent history. Having started on the back burner of Russian politics in the fall of 1991, mass privatization was completed on July 1, 1994, with two thirds of the Russian industry privately owned, a rapidly rising stock market, and 40 million Russians owning company shares. The authors, all key participants in the reform effort, describe the events and the ideas driving privatization. They argue that successful reformers must recognize privatization as a process of depoliticizing firms in the face of massive opposition: making the firm responsive to market rather than political influences. The authors first review the economic theory of property rights, identifying the political influence on firms as the fundamental failure of property rights under socialism. They detail the process of coalition building and compromise that ultmately shaped privatization. The main elements of the Russian program -- corporatization, voucher use, and voucher auctions -- are described, as is the responsiveness of privatized firms to outside investors. Finally, the market values of privatized assets are assessed for indications of how much progress the country has made toward reforming its economy. In many respects, privatization has been a great success. Market concepts of property ownership and corporate management are shaking up Russian firms at a breathtaking pace, creating powerful economic and political stimuli for continuation of market reforms. At the same time, the authors caution, the political landscape remains treacherous as old-line politicians reluctantly cede their property rights and authority over firms.

Download or read book Russia s Military Modernisation An Assessment written by The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new IISS Strategic Dossier examines the recent development of Moscow’s armed forces and military capabilities. It analyses the aspirations underpinning Russia’s military reform programme and its successes as well as its failures. The book also provides insights into Russia’s operational use of its armed forces, including in the intervention in Syria, the goals and results of recent state armament programmes, and the trajectory of future developments. This full-colour volume includes more than 50 graphics, maps and charts and over 70 images, and contains chapters on: Russia's armed forces since the end of the Cold War Strategic forces Ground forces Naval forces Aerospace forces Russia’s approach to military decision-making and joint operations Economics and industry At a time when Russia’s relations with many of its neighbours are increasingly strained, and amid renewed concern about the risk of an armed clash, this dossier is essential reading for understanding the state,capabilities and future of Russia’s armed forces.

Download or read book Consent and Control in the Authoritarian Workplace written by Martin Krzywdzinski and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-26 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, a large proportion of the world's states are under authoritarian governments. These countries limit participation rights, both in the political sphere and in the workplace. At the same time, they have to generate consent in the workplace in order to ensure social stability and prevent the escalation of conflicts. But how do companies generate consent given that employee voice and interest representation may be limited or entirely absent? Based on a review of research literature from sociology, organizational psychology, and behavioural economics, this book develops a theory of consent generation and distinguishes three groups of consent-producing mechanisms: socialization, incentive mechanisms, and participation and interest representation. It presents an empirical analysis of how these mechanisms work in Russian and Chinese automotive factories and shows how socio-cultural factors and labour regulation explain the differences between both countries regarding consent and control in the workplace. The book contributes to two research debates. First, it examines the generation of consent in the workplace-a core topic of the sociology of work and organization. Its particular focus is on consent generation in authoritarian societies. Secondly, the book contributes to the debate about the reasons for the completely different trajectories of post-communist Russia and China. The book provides an empirical analysis that explains the different work behaviours of employees in both countries and links the micro-level of the workplace and the macro-level of institutions and organizational cultures.

Download or read book Reforming Rural Russia written by Francis William Wcislo and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As he examines administrative reform of Russian rural local government between the abolition of serfdom and World War I, Francis William Wcislo takes as his theme the repeated attempts of tsarist statesmen to restructure the most critical mediating link between the autocratic state and a rapidly modernizing agrarian society. His broader objective, however, is to use the issue of autocratic politics to probe the character and evolution of bureaucratic mentalit in this period. Wcislo links the social, psychological, ideological, and institutional nexus of the bureaucracy with its social underpinnings in rural society and lays bare the connections of the bureaucratic world with its traditional social base among the service nobility and the peasantry. Placing the conflicting views of officials within the context of the two political cultures of old regime society, he shows how bureaucratic reformers anxious to promote civic culture were undermined by defenders of traditional autocracy and the society of service estates (soslovie) with which that autocracy had coexisted. This defense of tradition and the resulting failure of reformist initiatives were fundamental to the crisis of Russia in the early twentieth century. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book The Tragedy of Russia s Reforms written by Peter Reddaway and published by US Institute of Peace Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 772 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the birth of the Russian state, focusing on Yeltsin's disastrous policies, which brought on an economic collapse almost twice as severe as America's Great Depression.

Download or read book Reforming Child Welfare in the Post Soviet Space written by Meri Kulmala and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-24 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides new and empirically grounded research-based knowledge and insights into the current transformation of the Russian child welfare system. It focuses on the major shift in Russia’s child welfare policy: deinstitutionalisation of the system of children’s homes inherited from the Soviet era and an increase in fostering and adoption. Divided into four sections, this book details both the changing role and function of residential institutions within the Russian child welfare system and the rapidly developing form of alternative care in foster families, as well as work undertaken with birth families. By analysing the consequences of deinstitutionalisation and its effects on children and young people as well as their foster and birth parents, it provides a model for understanding this process across the whole of the post-Soviet space. It will be of interest to academics and students of social work, sociology, child welfare, social policy, political science, and Russian and East European politics more generally.

Download or read book Russia in the Nineteenth Century written by Aleksandr I︠U︡rʹevich Polunov and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 2005 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This covers the history of Russia from the defeat of Napoleon to the eve of World War I. It is the first such work by a post-Soviet Russian scholar to appear in English. It examines the decay of the two central institutions of tsarist Russia: serfdom and autocracy; the major social groups and how they reacted to the Great Reforms.

Download or read book Russia Resurrected written by Kathryn E. Stoner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An assessment of Russia that suggests that we should look beyond traditional means of power to understand its strength and capacity to disrupt international politics. Too often, we are told that Russia plays a weak hand well. But, perhaps the nation's cards are better than we know. Russia ranks significantly behind the US and China by traditional measures of power: GDP, population size and health, and military might. Yet 25 years removed from its mid-1990s nadir following the collapse of the USSR, Russia has become a supremely disruptive force in world politics. Kathryn E. Stoner assesses the resurrection of Russia and argues that we should look beyond traditional means of power to assess its strength in global affairs. Taking into account how Russian domestic politics under Vladimir Putin influence its foreign policy, Stoner explains how Russia has battled its way back to international prominence. From Russia's seizure of the Crimea from Ukraine to its military support for the Assad regime in Syria, the country has reasserted itself as a major global power. Stoner examines these developments and more in tackling the big questions about Russia's turnaround and global future. Stoner marshals data on Russia's political, economic, and social development and uncovers key insights from its domestic politics. Russian people are wealthier than the Chinese, debt is low, and fiscal policy is good despite sanctions and the volatile global economy. Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime faces virtually no organized domestic opposition. Yet, mindful of maintaining control at home, Russia under Putin also uses its varied power capacities to extend its influence abroad. While we often underestimate Russia's global influence, the consequences are evident in the disruption of politics in the US, Syria, and Venezuela, to name a few. Russia Resurrected is an eye-opening reassessment of the country, identifying the actual sources of its power in international politics and why it has been able to redefine the post-Cold War global order.

Download or read book The Logic of Economic Reform in Russia written by Jerry F. Hough and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-06-23 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the failure of economic reform in Russia since 1991, when Boris Yeltsin proclaimed his commitment to economic stabilization, privatization, and price liberalization. Optimism over Russia¡¯s market reforms vanished with the crash of August 1998, when the ruble lost over 70 percent of its value and banks defaulted on their debts and forward currency contracts. Contrary to Yeltsin¡¯s reform promises, the Russian economy of the 1990s more closely resembled a Soviet model than a market-driven one. The Logic of Economic Reform in Russia illuminates the general problems of establishing market economies in settings where the institutional system to support the market has not had decades to develop. Suggesting that corruption may be associated with growth in the early stages of capitalism, Jerry F. Hough argues that the disappointing results of Yeltsin¡¯s reform efforts were not the product of Russian culture or history, but the logical consequences of rational men responding to the incentive system created by economic reform.