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Full-Text Articles in Labor Relations

Appr Appeals Process Report: Panels, Alexander Colvin, Sally Klingel, Honore Johnson Apr 2015

Appr Appeals Process Report: Panels, Alexander Colvin, Sally Klingel, Honore Johnson

Alexander Colvin

[Excerpt] This report describes the characteristics of joint panels and examines where they are being used in New York State to resolve APPR teacher evaluation disputes. The information presented here was gathered by analyzing the provisions of the APPR appeal procedures, which are publicly available on the New York State Department of Education website.


New York State Teacher Salary Report, Alexander Colvin, Sally Klingel, Simon Boehme, Susanne Donovan Apr 2015

New York State Teacher Salary Report, Alexander Colvin, Sally Klingel, Simon Boehme, Susanne Donovan

Alexander Colvin

Teachers are central to the success of any education system and the salaries paid to teachers are among the most important issues for both school districts and the unions that represent teachers. For school districts, teacher salaries are a major com- ponent of district budgets. Teacher salary levels are also a crucial factor in attracting and retaining quality educators. This report presents data on teacher salary levels based on teacher contracts throughout New York State. In addition to reporting overall statewide salary levels, it also documents the wide variation in teacher salary levels across New York State. This New York …


Aligning Employees Through Line Of Sight, Wendy R. Boswell, John B. Bingham, Alexander Colvin Jun 2012

Aligning Employees Through Line Of Sight, Wendy R. Boswell, John B. Bingham, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

Aligning employees with the firm’s larger strategic goals is critical if organizations hope to manage their human capital effectively and ultimately attain strategic success. An important component of attaining and sustaining this alignment is whether employees have “line of sight” to the organization’s strategic objectives. We illustrate how the translation of strategic goals into tangible results requires that employees not only understand the organization’s strategy, they must accurately understand what actions are aligned with realizing that strategy. Using recent empirical evidence, theoretical insights, and tangible examples of exemplary firm practices, we provide thought-leaders with a comprehensive view of LOS, how …


An Employment Systems Approach To Turnover: Hr Practices, Quits, Dismissals, And Performance, Rosemary Batt, Alexander Colvin Jun 2012

An Employment Systems Approach To Turnover: Hr Practices, Quits, Dismissals, And Performance, Rosemary Batt, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

This study examines the relationship between alternative approaches to employment systems and quits, dismissals and customer service, based on cross-sectional and longitudinal data from nationally representative surveys of call center establishments. Contrary to prior literature, the antecedents and consequences of quits and dismissals are quite similar. Comparing three dimensions of employment systems, we find that high involvement work organization and long-term investments and inducements are associated with significantly lower quit and dismissal rates, while short term performance-enhancing expectations are related to significantly higher quit and dismissal rates. Establishments with higher quit and dismissal rates have significantly lower customer service, as …


The Problem Of Action And Interest Alignment: Beyond Job Requirements And Incentive Compensation, Alexander Colvin, Wendy R. Boswell Jun 2012

The Problem Of Action And Interest Alignment: Beyond Job Requirements And Incentive Compensation, Alexander Colvin, Wendy R. Boswell

Alexander Colvin

We introduce two concepts, action alignment and interest alignment, that we propose to help explain the linkages between employee behaviors and organizational strategy. We first examine the problem of action alignment, developing employee ability to identify and engage in behaviors that most effectively lead to the realization of the goals of organizational strategy. In particular, our discussion of action alignment focuses on the issues of employee line of sight to organizational strategy and the development of shared mindsets within the organization. We argue that aligned actions involving employee behaviors that are discretionary and difficult to specify in advance are especially …


Flexibility And Fairness In Liberal Market Economies: The Comparative Impact Of The Legal Environment And High Performance Work Systems, Alexander Colvin Jun 2012

Flexibility And Fairness In Liberal Market Economies: The Comparative Impact Of The Legal Environment And High Performance Work Systems, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

This paper compares management flexibility in employment decision-making in the United States and Canada through a cross-national survey of organizations in representative jurisdictions in each country, Pennsylvania and Ontario respectively, that investigates the impact of differences in their legal environments. The results indicate that, compared to their Ontario counterparts, organizations in Pennsylvania have a higher degree of flexibility in employment outcomes, such as higher dismissal and discipline rates, yet do not experience any greater flexibility or simplicity in management hiring and firing decisions. One explanation for this result may lie in the finding that organizations in Pennsylvania experience greater legal …


Institutional Pressures, Human Resource Strategies, And The Rise Of Nonunion Dispute Resolution Procedures, Alexander Colvin May 2012

Institutional Pressures, Human Resource Strategies, And The Rise Of Nonunion Dispute Resolution Procedures, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

The author investigates factors influencing the adoption of dispute resolution procedures in the nonunion workplace. Various explanations are tested using data from a 1998 survey of dispute resolution procedures in the telecommunications industry. The results suggest that both institutional pressures and human resource strategies are factors driving the adoption of nonunion procedures. Among institutional factors, rising individual employment rights litigation and expanded court deferral to nonunion arbitration have led to increased adoption of mandatory arbitration procedures in the nonunion workplace. At the same time, an older institutional factor—union substitution by nonunion employers aimed at avoiding union organizing—continues to inspire the …


Employee Voice, Human Resource Practices, And Quit Rates: Evidence From The Telecommunications Industry, Rosemary Batt, Alexander J.S. Colvin, Jeffrey Keefe May 2012

Employee Voice, Human Resource Practices, And Quit Rates: Evidence From The Telecommunications Industry, Rosemary Batt, Alexander J.S. Colvin, Jeffrey Keefe

Alexander Colvin

The authors draw on strategic human resource and industrial relations theories to identify the sets of employee voice mechanisms and human resource practices that are likely to predict firm-level quit rates, then empirically evaluate the predictive power of these variables using data from a 1998 establishment level survey in the telecommunications industry. With respect to alternative voice mechanisms, they find that union representation predicts lower quit rates, even after they control for compensation and a wide range of other human resource practices that may be affected by collective bargaining. Also predicting lower quit rates is employee participation in offline problem-solving …


[Review Of The Book Why The Garden Club Couldn’T Save Youngstown: The Transformation Of The Rust Belt], Alexander Colvin May 2012

[Review Of The Book Why The Garden Club Couldn’T Save Youngstown: The Transformation Of The Rust Belt], Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

[Excerpt] As economic crisis once again grips the land, it is valuable to ponder the lessons of attempts to recover from past downturns. For example, the economic dislocations of the 1970s and 1980s transformed the industrial heartland of America into the “Rust Belt” and forced communities to grapple with how to recover from a lost standard of living revolving around good paying jobs in industries like steel production that were unlikely ever to return. In his interesting and highly readable book, Sean Safford examines the diverging economic trajectories of two similar rust belt communities, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio. Both …