Airline Pilot Unions in Australia, Japan and the United States : A Test of Cross-National Convergence
There is a general proposition that common, advanced technologies similarly deployed in countries with different histories, cultures and industrial relations systems will tend to generate similar outcomes cross-nationally. Airlines operating identical aircraft in Australia, Japan and the United States provide an opportunity to test this convergence hypothesis. Despite very different normative industrial re lations systems in these three countries, pilots of Boeing 747 aircraft havefashioned pay schemes and union structures that are far more alike cross-nationally than those that generally characterise employees in other occupations and industries in the same national context. Airline pilots have, in effect, become partners with employers in sharing benefits of increased productivity of the larger or faster aircraft they fly. While acknowledging factors other than common technologies, this study supports the general convergence hypothesis when applied to an industry level. It does not support those 'post-industrial society' theorists who see the overwhelming influence of technology as eroding social and occupational distinctions between and among different classes of workers.
Comparative Industrial Sociology and the Convergence Hypothesis
Industrial sociology grew spectacularly after World War II, concentrating on three areas: workers' relations with each other, their managers, and their unions; the social organization of the factory; and the impact of technology on social systems extending from the factory to the society. Unable to sus­ tain leadership in all of these areas, industrial sociology shrivelled as other fields invaded its domains. Human relations became the ideological property of the business schools; labor economics maintained its grip on industrial relations; industry-community relations waned as interest in community power soared; industrial organizations were absorbed into the study of com­ plex organizations; occupational sociology maintained research impetus in labor force analysis; and the sociology of the economy dominated the study of industry's institutional relationships. Industrial sociology survived on remnants: worker-machine relationships (job satisfaction, alienation, un­ employment), organizational responses to technological changes. and a bit of working-class ethnology. Enduring interest in technology, however, en­ abled industrial sociology to take part in sociology's expanding interest in comparative studies.
Ceramic microwave antennas for mobile applications
Due to their medium to high permittivity values, ceramic microwave materials are attractive as building blocks for miniaturised antenna solutions. Further advantages are low dielectric losses and an excellent temperature stability of standard ceramic materials. Yet, the permittivity of the ceramic material also has a strong influence on the radiation efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna. This implies that in the design process a suitable compromise has to be found between the degree of miniaturisation on the one hand and the antenna efficiency and bandwidth on the other. We describe two approaches towards efficient miniaturised ceramic microwave antennas: the dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial metallisation and the shorting post patch antenna. We focus on design steps taken to ensure both a high degree of miniaturisation and high values of the radiation efficiency, the choice of the ceramic material and the experimental performance of the antennas.