Labor Relations Commons^™

The Future Of Human Capital: An Employment Relations Perspective, Thomas Kochan, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

[Excerpt] It is not surprising that most theories of human capital treat the firm as the key unit of analysis, given the deep imprint that Becker (1964 [1993]) left with his early efforts to distinguish between general and specific human capital. It is especially understandable for research that focuses on American institutions and practices. Ever since the passage of the New Deal employment policies of the 1930s, firms have been assigned central roles in the delivery and financing of a variety of labor-market services, including the provision of workforce training and development (Osterman et al, 2001). Most of the chapters …

The Quality Of Jobs Created By Entrepreneurs, Adam Seth Litwin, Philip Phan

Adam Seth Litwin

Few dare to challenge the conventional wisdom that small business is the engine of job creation. Indeed, in the United States, the image of the small business owner left largely unfettered to create novel products and services sits on the same cultural plane as baseball and apple pie, and one would be hard-pressed to find a policymaker who would openly question the wisdom that most new jobs arise either directly or indirectly from these small businesses. This near religious belief in the small business owner as job creator yields a steady stream of policies offering tax relief to small businesses, …

Measurement Error In Performance Studies Of Health Information Technology: Lessons From The Management Literature, Adam Seth Litwin, Ariel Avgar, Peter Pronovost

Adam Seth Litwin

Just as researchers and clinicians struggle to pin down the benefits attendant to health information technology (IT), management scholars have long labored to identify the performance effects arising from new technologies and from other organizational innovations, namely the reorganization of work and the devolution of decision-making authority. This paper applies lessons from that literature to theorize the likely sources of measurement error that yield the weak statistical relationship between measures of health IT and various performance outcomes. In so doing, it complements the evaluation literature’s more conceptual examination of health IT’s limited performance impact. The paper focuses on seven issues, …

Rethinking Work And Family Policy: The Making And Taking Of Parental Leave In Australia, Marian Baird, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

Despite the continued increase in female participation rates, Australia remains one of only two developed nations in the world without a paid maternity leave scheme. While research interest and public policy debate about paid maternity leave entitlements continues, little is known about the actual utilization of the 52 weeks unpaid parental leave that is currently available to all employees. Moreover, research and policy debate on the availability and provision of paid paternity leave has only just begun. This paper argues that, given the gendered nature of employee entitlements, it is time to re-evaluate all aspects of parental leave policy in …

Not Featherbedding, But Feathering The Nest: Human Resource Management And Investments In Information Technology, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

This study draws on employment relations and management theory, claiming that certain innovative employment practices and work structures pave the way for organizational innovation, namely investments in information technology (IT). It then finds support for the theory in a cross-section of UK workplaces. The findings suggest that firms slow to adopt IT realize that their conventional employment model hinders their ability to make optimal use of new technologies. Therefore, the paper advances the literature beyond studies of unionization’s impact on business investment to a broader set of issues on the employment relations features that make organizations ripe for innovation.

Quality Over Quantity: Reexamining The Link Between Entrepreneurship And Job Creation, Adam Seth Litwin, Philip Phan

Adam Seth Litwin

Although much has been written about the quantity of jobs created by entrepreneurs, scholars have yet to examine the quality of these jobs. In this article, the authors begin to address this important issue by examining nearly 5,000 businesses that began operations in 2004. They investigate the extent to which nascent employers provide what many think of as quality jobs—those offering health care coverage and a retirement plan. The authors find that because of small scale, constrained resources, and protection from institutional pressures, start-up companies do not provide their employees with either of these proxies for job quality, and their …

Explaining The Health Information Technology Paradox, Ariel Avgar, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

Excerpt] The substantial gap between the promise inherent in upgrading information systems in health care and the documented reality has baffled health care scholars. Why is a technology so clearly capable of creating efficiencies, increasing safety, and promoting greater information sharing and coordination across professionals failing to live up to expectations?

Review Of Cleaning Up: How Hospital Outsourcing Is Hurting Workers And Endangering Patients, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

[Excerpt] Researchers sensitive to the plight of low-wage workers in advanced industrialized economies have long sought to convey the magnitude of the problem by retelling sorrowful tales of worker exploitation. Sadly, even their most sympathetic readers have numbed to these accounts. Author Dan Zuberi has found a clever way to transcend this apathy in his new monograph based on about 100 interviews plus behind-the- scenes observations of the impact of hospital support staff outsourcing on patients and workers. Through a well-developed understanding of the work process and changes in the employment relationship, he ties outsourcing and the resulting exploitation of …

Counting The Global Aerospace Workforce, Betty Barnett, Kevin Long, Lydia Fraile, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

As researchers on MIT’s Labor Aerospace Research Agenda (LARA), we began our work with many questions. Are other nations—like the United States—facing a “demographic cliff” as their aerospace workforce’s age? What strategic decisions are other countries making to insure adequate skills and competencies? How are offsets affecting employment levels? Are American job losses in aerospace matched by job gains elsewhere?

As it turns out, just determining the size of the global aerospace workforce has proved far more complicated than we imagined, although the initial data—and the questions they raise—suggest that this is an important undertaking. The impact of the September …

Nose To Tail: Using The Whole Employment Relationship To Link Worker Participation To Operational Performance, Adam Seth Litwin

Adam Seth Litwin

Although many employers continue to adopt various forms of worker participation or employee involvement, expected positive gains often fail to materialize. One explanation for the weak or altogether missing performance effects is that researchers rely on frameworks that focus almost exclusively on contingencies related to the workers themselves or to the set of tasks subject to participatory processes. This study is premised on the notion that a broader examination of the employment relationship within which a worker participation program is embedded reveals a wider array of factors impinging upon its success. I integrate labor relations theory into existing insights from …

Drivers And Barriers In Health It Adoption: A Proposed Framework, Ariel Avgar, Adam Seth Litwin, Peter Pronovost

Adam Seth Litwin

Despite near (and rare) consensus that the adoption and diffusion of health information technology (health IT) will bolster outcomes for organizations, individuals, and the healthcare system as a whole, there has been surprisingly little consideration of the structures and processes within organizations that might drive the adoption and effective use of the technology. Management research provides a useful lens through which to analyze both the determinants of investment and the benefits that can ultimately be derived from these investments. This paper provides a conceptual framework for understanding health IT adoption. In doing so, this paper highlights specific organizational barriers or …

Identity Work: Sustaining Transnational Collective Action At General Motors Europe, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

What are the conditions under which transnational collective action is initiated and sustained? This paper presents a case study of General Motors Europe, where labor leaders have mobilized the workforce and bargained with management at the transnational level repeatedly over more than a decade as a response to management whipsawing and threats of plant closures. In contrast to structuralist interest-based theories of union behavior, we identify a process of “identity work‟ that was necessary to sustain transnational worker cooperation.

World Champions In Hospital Privatisation: The Effects Of Neoliberal Reform On German Employees And Patients, Nils Böhlke, Ian Greer, Thorsten Schulten

Ian Greer

[Excerpt] Over the past decade, German hospitals have been privatised at a rate not seen in any other country. In response to massive public-sector debt and the resulting investment backlog, many state and local governments have been privatising hospitals. The most common arguments for privatisation are repeated in a recent study commissioned by the association of private hospital owners (Bundesverband Deutscher Privatkliniken - BDPK) namely that private hospitals manage in a more efficient manner and are economically more successful (Augurzky, Beivers et al., 2009). Indeed, in some cases, private for-profit hospital companies have invested generously and turned inefficient public hospitals …

Building And Rebuilding Trust: Why Perspective Taking Matters, Michele Williams

Michele Williams

[Excerpt] There is growing interest surrounding the function of perspective taking in social interactions and organizational life. In this chapter, I examine the role of perspective taking in trust building and trust repair. Whereas some researchers focus on the ability of perspective taking to elicit sympathy, concern, and cooperative behavior (Batson, Turk, Shaw, & Klein, 1995; Parker, Atkins, & Axtell, 2008; Parker & Axtell, 2001), others focus on the strategic impact of perspective taking (Epley, Caruso, & Bazerman, 2006; Galinsky, Maddux, Gilin & White, 2008; Galinsky & Mussweiler, 2001). I build on both streams of research by examining work that …

Perspective Taking Building Positive Interpersonal Connections And Trustworthiness One Interaction At A Time, Michele Williams

Michele Williams

There is growing interest in the role of perspective taking in organizations. Perspective taking has been linked to enhanced interpersonal understanding and the strengthening of social bonds. In this chapter, I integrate research from sociology, communications, and psychology to provide insight into why, when, and how perspective taking facilitates the relational resources of positive connections and trustworthy actions. I introduce the importance of a three-dimensional view of perspective taking for building relational resources and present data validating this conceptualization. I conclude with directions for future research.

Großbritannien: Noch Immer Heimat Des Neoliberalismus?, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

Großbritannien wurde zur Referenzgröße für neoliberale Reformen, und dies nicht nur aufgrund der Entwicklung unter Premierministerin Thatcher. Die Regierungen von New Labour (1997-2010) leiteten ebenfalls kontinuierlich Reformen ein, um die »Abhängigkeit vom Sozialstaat« zu bekämpfen. Damit hielten sie Großbritanniens Status als eine der am meisten ungleichen Gesellschaften Europas aufrecht. Der leichte wirtschaftliche Aufschwung führte dazu, dass die Erwerbslosenquote bei ungefähr acht Prozent verharrte, und eine neue Regierungskoalition von Konservativen und Liberaldemokraten verschärfte Kürzungen bei Sozialausgaben und kündigte Entlassungen im öffentlichen Sektor an, so dass eine weitere Verschlechterung der Lage zu erwarten ist.

Social Movement Unionism And Social Partnership In Germany: The Case Of Hamburg’S Hospitals, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

This paper traces the emergence of social movement unionism in Hamburg, Germany, as labor’s channels of influence have broken down and economic pressures have intensified. Trade unionists have responded to the privatization of the municipal hospitals by mobilizing members and building coalitions around issues beyond their members’ immediate interests, including democracy and public service quality. Although the loss of union influence has facilitated social movement unionism, in East Germany economic crisis has had a demobilizing effect.

Beyond National “Varieties”: Public-Service Contracting In Comparative Perspective, Ian Greer, Ian Greenwood, Mark Stuart

Ian Greer

[Excerpt] In this chapter, we will explore how work in contracted-out public services, including that in the voluntary sector, maps onto the broader international political economy of work. Comparative scholars often write about society correcting the excesses of the market, and it is hard to imagine a more relevant phenomenon to this than the voluntary sector. Yet this sector is itself subject to market forces, ironically perhaps, due to its ever-closer relationship with the state. Our study of employment in welfare-to-work services in the UK and Germany, whose findings are summarised below, shows how this relationship works and what its …

Social Dumping As Marketization: Management Whipsawing In Europe’S Auto Industry, Ian Greer, Marco Hauptmeier

Ian Greer

[Excerpt] The focus of this paper is one slow-burning change in the organization of capitalism in Europe, marketization (Greer and Doellgast 2013, Hauptmeier 2011). We argue that a specific species of marketization, management whipsawing, is causing social dumping in the automotive sector. By management whipsawing we mean the staging of economic competition by large corporations with several production units in a way that extracts labor concessions by pitting local workers against each other in contests for investment and production. Multinational companies (MNC) were the first movers and developed various management whipsawing practices; however, the term was also used historically to …

Organized Industrial Relations In The Information Economy: The German Automotive Sector As A Test Case, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

This paper explores the effect of the information economy on industrial relations through the lens of the restructuring of German automotive sector. Historically, this sector has generated important insights about national “models” and the political economy of work. I argue that vertical disintegration has created new market-mediated boundaries that have undermined existing patterns of organized industrial relations.

Political Entrepreneurs And Co-Managers: Labour Transnationalism At Four Multinational Auto Companies, Ian Greer, Marco Hauptmeier

Ian Greer

This paper examines labour transnationalism within four multinational automakers. In our sample, we find different forms of labour transnationalism, including transnational collective bargaining, mobilisation, information exchange and social codes of conduct. We explain these differences through the interaction between management and labour in the context of the company structure; of particular importance are transnational coercive comparisons by management and the orientations of worker representatives as political entrepreneurs or co-managers. We conclude that, although intensified worker-side crossborder cooperation were not preventing wage-based competition in general (due to the lack of between-firm coordination), they have reshaped employment relations within these MNCs.

Marktorientierung Und Anstellungsverhältnisse In Der Aktivierungsindustrie: Fallstudie Zu Großbritannien Und Deutschland, Ian Greer, Ian Greenwood, Mark Stuart

Ian Greer

In diesem Beitrag beschreiben wir »Aktivierung« als staatlich finanzierte Industrie mit einem großen Personalbestand. Wir untersuchen die Beispiele Großbritannien und Deutschland, wo die wichtigsten Akteure die öffentlichen Arbeitsämter sind. Gemeint sind damit insbesondere die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) und das Jobcentre Plus (JCP), welche selber Arbeitsvermittlung betreiben sowie Weiterbildung und Beratung für Erwerbslose an externe Unternehmen auslagern. Als weitere wichtige Akteure sind große Anbieter wie die deutschen Sozialverbände und die nationalen karitativen Verbände Großbritanniens zu nennen, aber auch Konzerne wie A4e, Maximus oder Ingeus. In vielen Ländern expandierte die Aktivierungsindustrie zusammen mit den steigenden finanziellen Mitteln für Aktivierungsprogramme. Auch veränderte …

Labor And Regional Development In The U.S.A.: Building A High Road Infrastructure In Buffalo, New York, Ian Greer, Lou Jean Fleron

Ian Greer

[Excerpt] In a country where worker representatives lack broadly institutionalized roles as "social partners," how can they play a constructive role in solving the problems of regional development? In Buffalo, New York, regularized, labor-inclusive procedures of problem solving involving multiple coalition partners – what we call a high-road social infrastructure – has emerged. Socially engaged researchers and educators have played a role in spreading lessons and organizing dialogue. Despite the emergence of regional cooperation, however, successful development politics are hampered by many of the same problems seen in European regions, including uncertainty about the best union strategy, hostility from business …

Industrial Relations, Migration, And Neoliberal Politics: The Case Of The European Construction Sector, Nathan Lillie, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

Transnational politics and labor markets are undermining national industrial relations systems in Europe. This article examines the construction industry, where the internationalization of the labor market has gone especially far. To test hypotheses about differences between “national systems,” the authors examine the United Kingdom, Finland, and Germany, alongside European-level policy making. Regardless of overall national institutional framework, employers seek to avoid industrial relations rules, while unions attempt to relocalize labor relations. Both use shop-floor, national, and European power resources. The authors argue that comparative industrial relations should take seriously the connection between action at the national and transnational levels.

Effects Of Unionization On Graduate Student Employees: Faculty-Student Relations, Academic Freedom, And Pay, Sean Rogers, Adrienne E. Eaton, Paula B. Voos

Sean Edmund Rogers

In cases involving unionization of graduate student research and teaching assistants at private U.S. universities, the National Labor Relations Board has, at times, denied collective bargaining rights on the presumption that unionization would harm faculty-student relations and academic freedom. Using survey data collected from PhD students in five academic disciplines across eight public U.S. universities, the authors compare represented and non-represented graduate student employees in terms of faculty-student relations, academic freedom, and pay. Unionization does not have the presumed negative effect on student outcomes, and in some cases has a positive effect. Union-represented graduate student employees report higher levels of …

Ports And Ladders: The Nature And Relevance Of Internal Labor Markets In A Changing World, Paul Osterman, M. Diane Burton

M. Diane Burton

[Excerpt] Many believe that the nature of careers has changed dramatically in the past twenty years. One scholar writes that internal labor markets have been 'demolished', while a human resources manager at Intel comments that, in contrast to the past, today, 'You own your own employability. You are responsible' (Knoke 2001: 31). The idea of the 'boundaryless career' seems increasingly popular (Arthur and Rousseau 1996). If it is in fact true that the old rules for organizing work have disappeared, this would represent a fundamental change for employees. It would also have major implications for how scholars think about the …

The Globalization Of Service Work: Comparative Institutional Perspectives On Call Centers (Introduction To A Special Issue Of The Industrial & Labor Relations Review), Rosemary Batt, David Holman, Ursula Holtgrewe

Rosemary Batt

This introduction to the special issue on the globalization of service work provides an overview of the call center sector and its development in coordinated, liberal market, and emerging market economies. The introduction's authors situate this research in literature on the comparative political economy and industrial relations. Drawing on qualitative research and a unique survey of 2,500 establishments in 17 countries conducted in 2003-2006, they discuss the extent of convergence and divergence in management practices and employment relations. They also describe the research methodology for the overall research project, highlight its major findings, and summarize the contributions of the thematic …