Workplaces have become increasingly diverse as a result of migration and other socio-economic changes in Europe. In the light of post-2004 migration, many Polish migrants find themselves in work-places where multiculture is an everyday lived experience. By drawing on narrative interviews conducted with Polish migrant women in Manchester and Barcelona, this paper focuses on the complexities of interaction with other ethnic groups at work, demonstrating various forms of conviviality. The study reveals more and less meaningful forms of contact at work including workplace friendships, light-hearted forms of conviviality characterised by the interplay of language and humour, relations based on care and respect for difference, as well as forced encounters marked by superficial and involuntary interaction. The findings show that while workplace can be a place of meaningful interaction, it can also involve conflict and tensions. The narratives illustrate that workplace relations can be influenced by the dynamics of gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic circumstances and immigration discourses. The paper contributes analytically and empirically to the understanding of different forms of encounters in the workplace.
The paper presents the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process technique to evaluate and choose the best alternative for acquiring hard coal for energy purposes by a potential Investor operating in the mining and energy sector. Six different sources supposed to provide hard coal were analysed, each of which might ensure a secure and independent supply of the material to the newly built coal-fired power plant. When choosing the best decision alternative, the positive and negative impacts of alternatives were considered through the BOCR analysis: benefits (B), opportunities (O), costs (C) and risks (R) analysis. For this purpose, 4 independent hierarchical models were developed. Different models have the same decision alternatives assessed, but they differ in criteria used to develop the models. In each of the models, in accordance with the AHP rules, were calculated final, global weights for the alternatives being assessed. Showing the best alternative was possible by applying the multiplicative formula (B ź O)/(C ź R), which value was used to rank and choose the best alternative from all assessed ones. The best decision alternative is the alternative where the (B ź O)/(C ź R) ratio is the highest.