Knowledge Centre

California’s Contractor Law Stirs Confusion Beyond the Gig Economy

Kate Conger & Noam Schieber, The New York Times, Wednesday 11th September, 2019, 14 September 2019 A landmark bill passed by legislators in California could force companies like Uber and Lyft to reclassify hundreds of thousands of independent contractors as employees, paying overtime and giving access to other benefits. The new law has not gone down well with the companies in question. Companies like Uber and Lyft are concerned as their drivers...

government relations socio political environment

Politically incorrect speech can be good politics

Ephrat Livni, Quartz, Friday 13th September, 2019, 13 September 2019 A new study by researchers at Harvard and Berkeley universities, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, examines the idea of political correctness and its interplay with authenticity. Researchers defined “correctness” as what seems morally right during a certain time with a certain group. One of the study's key findings was...

socio political environment

Sainsbury's pledges to halve plastic packaging by 2025

BBC News, Thursday 12th September, 2019, 12 September 2019 Sainsbury’s, the second largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom has pledged to halve the amount of plastic used in its stores by 2025. "We can't do this on our own and we will be asking our suppliers and our customers to work with us," said Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe. Talks with food manufacturers, suppliers, scientists and the waste and...

csr corporate responsibility

Government orders Google not to restrict employees’ free speech

Annie Palmer, CNBC, Thursday 12th September, 2019, 11 September 2019 Google has been told by the National Labor Relations Board that it is within employees’ rights to openly debate political and workplace issues. This decision comes after a controversial community guideline sent by CEO Sundar Pichai in August ruled against such discussions in Google’s offices and online forums. In a series of employee complaints...

government relations public policy

States led by Texas target Google in new antitrust probe

Rachel Lehrman & Marcy Gordon, Associated Press, Tuesday 10th September, 2019, 10 September 2019 Google will face an antitrust probe after fifty US states and territories announced they will examine “potential monopolistic behaviour”. Scrutiny of large tech companies from US congressional authorities and European regulators has mounted recently, with an investigation into Facebook’s dominance announced by two US states last week. Google’s...

socio political environment

Women going backwards at the top of corporate Australia

Peter Ryan, ABC News, Tuesday 10th September, 2019, 10 September 2019 The annual census by Chief Executive Women (CEW) which represents 560 female corporate leaders and analyses gender equality amongst Australia’s top 200 companies has said progress is slow with 17 companies still having no women in their leadership teams. CEW President Sue Morphett said she is disappointed by the findings. “There are some figures...

governance adaptive leadership

Business Action Critical to Secure a Sustainable Future

Tina Nybo Jensen, IISD, Tuesday 10th September, 2019, 10 September 2019 In a recent review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the United Nations High-level Political Forum found countries are not on track to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set four years ago. An evaluation of the GRI found a fall in the number of countries providing information...

corporate responsibility adaptive leadership

Amazon, Facebook and Google hit back at tax on digital companies’ sales, warn of trade wars

Nassim Khadem, ABC News, Tuesday 3rd September, 2019, 03 September 2019 Tech giants Amazon, Facebook and Google are the targets of a suggested tax on sales as the Australian Government discusses an OECD and G20 plan to resolve tax avoidance in the digital economy. Europe are already acting, with the French Senate recently passing a three per cent turnover levy that will apply to companies with more than 25 million...

public policy government relations

Miners face higher bar to maintain ‘social licence’, report warns

Nick Toscano, Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 2nd September, 2019, 02 September 2019 A Deloitte report being circulated within the mining industry has warned companies that conflict with communities could face losing their social licence if they are unable to go beyond their required stakeholder and environmental obligations. "In many countries, the true economic contribution of mining is being questioned," said the report. The...

corporate responsibility measurement

Why CEOs Surround M&A Announcements with Unrelated Good News

Harvard Business Review, Friday 30th August, 2019, 30 August 2019 Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) are often received negatively by the market. It’s for this reason that CEOs communicate differently to manage the impressions of the firm and its strategy after the decision is made. In new research, HBR examined ‘impression offsetting’, an impression management tactic in which firms publish unrelated positive news...

leadership communications