Self-interests and group-interests in employee involvement programs: A case study

What happens in a unionized setting when a participatory management system is adopted? This question is examined based on a field study of a union manufacturing facility that has been operating under a gainsharing system for four years. As suggested by the political science literature on transforming political systems from authoritarian rule to democracies, the events resemble a complicated chess game among management, union officers, and union members pursuing their self-interests or group-interests during and after the transitional process. Although gainsharing bonuses have been minimal, the democratization of organizational structures and relationships has generated multiple beneficial organizational and individual outcomes for management and union members.     

Concession bargaining and unions: Impacts and implications

The characteristics of concession bargaining relating to management behavior, information disclosure, intraunion activity, and union member attitudes are formulated and briefly described, followed by an exploration of the impact of the experience on and the implications for unions. The analysis suggests that union solidarity, union leader credibility, and union effectiveness have been negatively affected. Concession bargaining appears to lead to more difficulty in administering unions, a further decline in union image, an emphasis on adversarial relations with management, and the potential use of new tactics in collective bargaining. The authors express appreciation to Dr. Donald McPherson, Dr. Antone Aboud, and Commissioner Joseph Biondo, FMCS, for helpful comments.     

The effects of management practices on union election returns

This paper examines the importance of management suppression tactics on union activity in the United States. NLRB data on individual certification elections which have recently become available for the period 1972–1976 are merged with structural, demographic, and industry characteristics of the 96 largest SMSAs to ascertain the role of strategy versus structure in explaining union outcomes. The measures of election-generated membership outcomes are voter participation, the margin of pro-union votes, and union wins. Union suppression practices under study include consent elections, election delays, formal objections after unions win a certification election, elections overruled because of management unfair labor practices, elections held by management petition, and the number of unfair labor practice charges per representation election. Five of the six measures of suppression are significant determinants of some facet of union expansion after adjusting for structural characteristics of the area work force.     

The acceptance and use of public relations practices among Kansas litigators

Because of a rash of recent high-profile trials, the practice of litigation public relations (LPR) has come under close scrutiny. LPR is the use of public relations techniques by attorneys to advance their clients' interests. Many in the legal community frown upon its use, saying it detracts from the true purposes of the judicial system. Some defense attorneys believe it is a logical response to the seemingly greater access prosecutors have to the news media. Although most state bars have rules that govern pretrial publicity, they are rarely enforced and have been challenged in the courts. Although some question whether LPR has any influence upon the courts, there is anecdotal evidence that, indeed, it does.A survey of Kansas litigators suggests that LPR is more accepted in theory than in practice. LPR does not appear to be in widespread use. When it is used, it appears to be under close supervision of attorneys. Three groups appear most likely to use LPR: litigators working in organizations that employ larger numbers of attorneys, private litigators and younger litigators. Growth in the field appears likely. However, the environ-ment for continued use of cameras in courtrooms appears to be chilly, if not hostile.     

Transformational Leadership in Labor Organizations: The Effects on Union Citizenship Behaviors

This study suggests that transformational leadership influences union citizenship behavior by fostering a covenantal relationship between the union and the union member. A framework for covenantal relationships is developed from social exchange and social identity theories. Transformational leadership behavior was found to be strongly related to perceived union support, a social exchange construct. The results also indicated that there are positive and significant relationships between other social exchange constructs such as felt obligation and trust. Social identity theory is used to augment social exchange theory in explaining the process by which transformational leadership behaviors relate to union citizenship behaviors through union-based self-esteem. Limitations of the study, implications for union management, and directions for future research issues are discussed.     

National and local public relations campaigns during the 1946 steel strike

Although scholars recognize the importance of public relations in the process of negotiations between management and organized labor, few have attempted to document such efforts or to analyze their effects. This review of public relations activities at the local and national levels during the 1946 steel strike indicates that national public relations campaigns, conducted by the union and the steel trade association, had virtually no impact on the resolution of the strike at the local level, and local public relations programs, conducted by the union local and a small manufacturing company, did little to further management or union goals at the national level. If anything, the national programs only confused the community by offering messages that did not necessarily correspond to the local situation.     

Mediation outcomes and sources of impasse: An empirical investigation

This study examines two of the four determinants of mediation effectiveness identified in Kochan and Jick’s (1978) model of the public sector mediation process: source of impact and situational factors. Questionnaire data were directly obtained from 240 Bangladesh management and union officials. Discriminant analysis identified several sources of impasse for both union and management groups, but no situational factors were found to accurately predict case settlement. Results are discussed in terms of U.S. public sector mediation research.     

Attiitudes of Attorneys and Judges Toward Joint Custody and Its Litigation

The purposes of this research were: (1) to determine the consequences of joint custody as perceived by judges and attorneys (2) to determine whether attitudes toward the concept of joint custody influence judges' and attorneys' attitudes toward the Louisiana joint custody law, and (3) to determine the relationship between attitudes of judges and the percentage of awards for joint custody. Forty-four judges and 110 attorneys completed and returned the questionnaire used in this paper. It was concluded that judges and attorneys views some of the beneficial consequences of joint custody as occuring more frequently than others and more frequently than the detrimental consequences. Attitudes toward joint custody and attitudes toward the Louisiana statute were not found to be significantly related. A positive correlation was found between judges' perceptions of the frequency with both parents and the percentages of cases in which judges award joint custody. No significant correlation was found bewteen percentages of awards for joint custody granted by judges and their attitudes toward Louisiana's statute.     

The compensation of national union presidents: Moderating effects of union size

Over the last forty years numerous reseachers from the fields of economics, finance, and human resources management have proposed and empirically evaluated a number of models in efforts to identify determinants of executive compensation. Recently, similar research efforts have been undertaken to identify compensation determinants for union officers, both at the local and national levels. As an extension of these works, this study found measures of union financial strength, job complexity, performance and tenure in office to be directly related to national union presidents’ compensation. Although union income and relative union member earnings were the strongest determinants of officer compensation for the sample of unions as a whole, analyses of three subgroups of unions based on size revealed very different findings for large as opposed to small and medium-sized unions.     

Labor arbitrators’ performance: Views from union and management perspectives

Analyses were carried out relating performance evaluations of labor arbitrators by union representatives to similar evaluations of the same arbitrators by management representatives. It was found that these evaluations are either unrelated or, in some cases, negatively related. An important consideration in the evaluations is whether an arbitrator’s awards tend to favor union or management. These results are dicussed in terms of the disparate values and “good arbitrator” views of arbitrator performance. Both views find some support.     

Lessons from the courtroom: Perspectives from child welfare attorneys and supervisors

Despite a history of child welfare worker performance difficulty in the courtroom, there has been little documentation regarding specific training needs for worker courtroom practice skills. This study expands the literature on child welfare courtroom practice skills by documenting child welfare worker conduct via perspectives from courtroom attorneys and child welfare supervisors. Separate focus groups with child welfare attorneys and supervisors were held to ascertain best and concerning practices for child welfare workers in the courtroom. Focus group participants identified themes related to preparation, adversarial nature of court proceedings, testimony, reasonable efforts, appearance and mannerisms, esteem of workers, duality of worker roles, and support. Study results have implications for focusing and improving training and supervision.     

Legal and Extralegal Factors Affecting Minority Overrepresentation in Virginia’s Juvenile Justice System: A Mixed-Method Study

This study examined legal and extralegal factors, specifically race, and their effects on processing and sanctions for 2,233 African American and Caucasian males in Virginia’s juvenile justice system. Qualitative findings from in-depth interviews with juvenile judges, Commonwealth’s attorneys, defense attorneys, police officers, juveniles and their families triangulate the quantitative findings. Crime severity was the only factor which affected the likelihood of diversion; whereas race, grade repeated, prior record, and crime severity increased the likelihood of incarceration through two logistic regression models. Stakeholders added discussion regarding family structure and education. As social work practice intersects with juvenile justice through multiple avenues, the implications of these findings are discussed.     

Older Persons and Compromised Decisional Capacity: The Role of Public Policy in Defining and Developing Core Professional Competencies

Issues frequently arise concerning the cognitive and emotional ability of older individuals to make certain legally significant decisions. In confronting these issues, the professional involvement of both attorneys and physicians (and other health care professionals), acting both individually and collaboratively, is desirable. This article describes the possible contributions of public policy in developing, through fostering innovations in medical and legal education, core competencies for physicians and attorneys that are essential to improving interprofessional collaboration on behalf of older individuals suspected of being compromised in their ability to make certain significant decisions. Additionally, ideas are suggested to address certain aspects of the current policy environment that may inhibit attorneys and physicians from optimal interprofessional interaction in this sphere.     

Union activity and the decline in American trade union membership

This paper extends recent research on the determinants of the decline in union membership in the United States. Using biennial state-level data for a set of years between 1958 and 1982, my model tests “union organizing,” “structural,” “management opposition,” and “public policy” hypotheses concerning union membership and suggests improved specifications of each of these hypotheses. The paper also examines the relative importance of each factor in explaining the decline in unionization. The results support each of the hypotheses and confirm previous findings that changes in the structure of the labor force are most important in explaining union membership decline.     

Unions as value-adding networks: Possibilities for the future of U.S. unionism

VII. Conclusions The decline in private sector union density in the U.S. coincided with increased innovation at the local level. One trend in particular, value-adding unionism, may offer some hope for those who believe that workers, the economy, and the nation benefit from strong, independent trade union movement. Unions that can add value to firm performance while at the same time fulfilling their responsibilities to represent the collective and individual interests of their membership have greater appeal to potential union members seeking opportunities for both representation and participation. Since they add economic value to firms, they may also reduce the level of managerial resistance that we have seen in recent history. Farber and Western (2001) argue that the overall U.S. decline in union density is almost entirely due to falling employment in unionized firms and increases in nonunion firms. This value-adding approach offers one strategy to preserve and expand union employment in firms where it is already established, thus slowing or reversing the decline. Moreover, as structural changes in the economy have led to shifts away from sectors with high levels of union density, they have at the same time put a premium on the ability of firms to respond quickly to changes in the marketplace and the competitive environment. Value-adding unions can provide the infrastructure for organizational networks that facilitate the communication and coordination necessary to adjust to such changes. Thus, new forms of representation that provide unions and their members with greater opportunities in decision making, management, and governance can add value to both management and labor. I thank Charles Heckscher and Bruce Kaufman for comments on earlier drafts of the paper and the National Science Foundation, Rutgers University, and MIT for financial support.     

Attorneys' Perceptions of Their Role in Divorce

The traditional advocate role of the attorney in divorce has come under attack because the rational-logical emphasis of the legal system has not provided an ideal atmosphere for the resolution of conflict and, in fact, may serve as a catalyst to increased hostilities. This paper examines the attorney role in terms of the traditional advocate versus the nontraditional counselor (since the advent of no-fault statutes in Georgia) in a sample of 22 attorneys with experience in divorce practice. The sample was drawn from the Atlanta metropolitan area and smaller metropolitan units within Georgia. The data suggest perceived interdependence between the judicial system (attorneys and the court) and emotional support systems (e.g., family counseling) as a means of facilitating postdivorce adjustment.     

Union responses to quality improvement initiatives: Factors shaping support and resistance

We analyze how, between 1989 and 1996, four unions in a Canadian hospital responded to a two-stage quality improvement (QI) initiative comprising a total quality management effort and a reengineering campaign. Results indicate that union leaders' responses to QI were a function of the extent to which the leaders perceived QI as a threat to their vested interests in union survival and protecting members'well being. The evolution of the relationship between QI and union responses, in turn, was shaped by the extent to which the unions and management accommodated each other's vested interests and by the parties' balance of power. We are grateful to all those who participated in this study for making it possible. The excellent research assistance of Deanna Chevrier is highly appreciated. We are also indebted to Kay Devine, Joseph Gebran, Francis Lau, and Lloyd Steier for helpful comments on versions of this paper. The research was supported by a NOVA Fellowship, Faculty of Business, University of Alberta.