Business Commons^™

Building And Construction Trades Unions: Are They Built To Win?, Jeff Grabelsky

Jeffrey Grabelsky

[Excerpt] The evidence of labor's declining power in the economic and political arenas is increasingly clear. Despite the tenacious efforts of talented leaders over the past ten years, the labor movement has still failed to turn the proverbial cornet. Some labor leaders now believe that a dramatic change in strategic direction may be necessary to revitalize labor's fortunes. The emerging debate about labor's future touches every sector of the movement. The building and construction trades are no exception.

Creating A Multipurpose Digital Institutional Repository, Suzanne A. Cohen, Deborah J. Schmidle

Suzanne Cohen

DigitalCommons@ILR is a multipurpose institutional repository (IR) for scholarship produced by faculty at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Unlike most IRs, it also functions as a subject-based repository for workplace-related information. This paper will discuss the issues involved in the implementation of DigitalCommons@ILR, including the choice of software, collection scope and policies, organization, and staffing. Keys to success in developing repository content, including building administrative support and developing partnerships, will be noted.

Telecommunications 2004: Strategy, Hr Practices & Performance - Cornell-Rutgers Telecommunications Project, Rosemary Batt, Alex Colvin, Harry Katz, Jeffrey Keefe

Rosemary Batt

This national benchmarking report of the U.S. telecommunications services industry traces the tumultuous changes in management and workforce practices and performance in the sector over the last 5 years. This is a follow-up report to our 1998 study. At that time, when the industry was booming, we conducted a national survey of establishments in the industry. In 2003, we returned to do a second national survey of the industry, this time in a sector that was recovering from one of the worst recessions in its history.

Human Resource Management, Service Quality, And Economic Performance In Call Centers, Rosemary Batt, Lisa M. Moynihan

Rosemary Batt

This paper examines the relationship between human resource practices, operational outcomes, and economic performance in call centers. The study draws on a sample of 64 call centers serving the mass market in a large telecommunications services company. Surveys of 1,243 employees in the 64 centers were aggregated to the call center level and matched to archival data on service process quality, as measured by customer surveys; call handling time, revenues per call, and net revenues per call. Our path analysis shows that human resource practices emphasizing employee training, discretion, and rewards lead to higher service quality, higher revenues per call, …

Net Working: Work Patterns And Workforce Policies For The New Media Industry, Rosemary Batt, Susan Christopherson, Ned Rightor, Danielle Van Jaarsveld

Rosemary Batt

This report, based on a study of a group of highly accomplished professionals in New York City, is one of the first to take up labor market issues in the new media industry. It describes the challenges faced by professionals and employers alike in this important and dynamic sector, and identifies strategies for success in a project oriented environment with highly complex skill demands and rapidly changing technology. Our findings suggest three central issues.

The Indian Call Centre Industry: National Benchmarking Report Strategy, Hr Practices, & Performance, Rosemary Batt, Virginia Doellgast, Hyunji Kwon, Mudit Nopany, Priti Nopany, Anil Da Costa

Rosemary Batt

Report of the Global Call Centre Industry Project

The dramatic growth of the call center industry is a world-wide phenomenon, fueled by advances in information technologies and the precipitous decline in the costs of voice and data transmission over the last two decades. As part of this global industry, call centres in India have experienced spectacular growth in the last five years. They generate seventy percent of the revenues of the Indian Business Process Outourcing (BPO) industry, according to estimates by Mckinsey (www.nasscom.org).

This rapid growth has also brought managerial challenges in terms of recruitment,staffing, training, and retention of workers …

The Impact Of Employee Voice And Compliance Mechanisms On Absenteeism, Discipline, And Turnover, Alexander J.S. Colvin, Rosemary Batt, Jeffrey Keefe

Rosemary Batt

This study examines the impact of employee voice and compliance mechanisms on voluntary turnover and other workplace behaviors. Results from analysis of a unique, nationally representative sample of establishments in the telecommunications industry show that voice mechanisms in the form of unions and problem-solving groups are associated with significantly reduced quit rates and dismissal rates. In addition, voice mechanisms in the form of self-directed work teams are associated with lower absenteeism and discipline rates. By contrast, compliance mechanisms in the form of electronic monitoring are associated with higher discipline rates, while the compliance mechanism of strict work rules is associated …

The Economic Costs And Benefits Of Self-Managed Teams Among Skilled Technicians, Rosemary Batt

Rosemary Batt

This paper estimates the economic costs and benefits of implementing teams among highly-skilled technicians in a large regional telecommunications company. It matches individual survey and objective performance data for 230 employees in matched pairs of traditionally-supervised and self-managed groups. Multivariate regressions with appropriate controls show that teams do the work of supervisors in 60-70% less time, reducing indirect labor costs by 75 percent per team. Objective measures of quality and labor productivity are unaffected. Team members receive additional overtime pay that represents a 4-5 percent annual wage premium, which may be viewed alternatively as a share in the productivity gains …

How High Performance Human Resource Practices And Workforce Unionization Affect Managerial Pay, Alexander Colvin, Rosemary Batt, Harry C. Katz

Rosemary Batt

Using data from a nationally representative sample of telecommunications establishments, this study finds that HR practices and workforce unionization influence managerial pay levels and the ratio of manager-to-worker pay. High performance HR practices, including investment in the skills of the workforce, in computer-based technologies, and in performance-based worker pay practices, are all positively related to managerial pay; but the use of workforce teams, which shift some managerial responsibilities to workers, has the opposite association. High performance HR practices also are associated with lower manager to- worker pay differentials. In addition, workforce unionization is positively associated with managerial pay levels, with …

What Are The Effects Of Work Restructuring On Employee Well-Being And Firm Performance? Evidence From Telecommunications Services, Rosemary Batt

Rosemary Batt

The purpose of this study was to assess whether there are benefits to employees and firms associated with new forms of work organization and human resource and industrial relations practices. I examine a series of interrelated questions that may be summarized as follows. First, does participation in either total quality improvement teams or self-directed teams have benefits for workers, managers, and firms? If benefits exist, are they undermined by the negative effects of understaffing and job insecurity associated with downsizing? And finally, is there a coherent set of work organization, human resource, and industrial relations practices that provides mutual gains …

Worker Participation In Diverse Settings: Does The Form Affect The Outcome, And If So, Who Benefits?, Rosemary Batt, Eileen Applebaum

Rosemary Batt

[Excerpt] This paper utilizes extensive surveys of workers in three occupational groups (network craft workers, semi-skilled office workers, and semi-skilled machine operators) in two very different industries (telecommunications and apparel)i to examine the outcomes of workplace innovations. Our central . question has two parts. First, what are the outcomes of off-line employee participation programs versus on-line work reorganization experiments? Second, who benefits from which type of innovation: employees, employers, or both? To answer these questions, we consider the effects of off-line versus on-line innovations on workers' satisfaction with their jobs, on their commitment to the companies they work for, and …

How Much Should We Care About Changing Income Inequality In The Course Of Economic Growth?, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper asks how much we should care about changes in Lorenz curves and standard inequality measures when economic growth takes place. I conclude that these changes are of some importance but that other aspects of inequality and poverty are more important.

An Analysis Of Factors Present In Challenged And Vacated Labor And Employment Arbitration Awards, Michael Jedel, Helen Lavan, Robert Perkovich

Helen LaVan

No abstract provided.

Re-Thinking The Future Of Work: Beyond Binary Hierarchies, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

How will work be organised in the future? This paper reveals that although there are multiple stories about the future of work, a similar storyline is adopted across many of the competing visions. Most visions firstly squeeze all forms of work into one side or the other or some dichotomy and then proceed to temporally and/or normatively sequence the two sides of the dualism and finally label the resultant one-dimensional and linear trajectory as some -ism, -ation or post-somethingor-other. This paper evaluates critically such hierarchical binary narratives (e.g., the shift from informal to formal work, non-commodified to commodified work, localisation …

Tackling Undeclared Work In The European Union, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

The Economic Pay-Offs To Informal Training: Evidence From Routine Service Work, Rosemary Batt

Rosemary Batt

This study examines the relationship between informal training and job performance among 2,803 telephone operators in a large unionized U.S. telecommunications company. The authors analyze individual-level data on monthly training hours and job performance over a five-month period in 2001 as provided by the company's electronic monitoring system. The results indicate that the receipt of informal training was associated with higher productivity over time, when unobserved individual heterogeneity is taken into account. Workers with lower pre-training proficiency showed greater improvements over time than did those with higher pre-training proficiency. Finally, whether the trainer was a supervisor or a peer also …

Global Competition’S Perfect Storm: Why Business And Labor Cannot Solve Their Problems Alone, Denise M. Rousseau, Rosemary Batt

Rosemary Batt

A perfect storm is a conjoining of forces that intensifies effects. This commentary addresses the economic perfect storm that the United States and many other developed countries face as they attempt to become globally competitive. Its forces conflate strategic change with the erosion of employment and income security as firms shed labor and old institutional arrangements, in turn degrading quality of work and family life for workers as well as the futures of retirees. We evaluate the responses of our commentators—Louis Uchitelle, J.T. Battenberg III, and Thomas Kochan—who assess the current crisis and possible solutions to it. Their responses and …

Why I Quit The Railroad, Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

The article presents the author's reasons for leaving her job in the railroad industry. She wasn't thrilled to be force-assigned to the foreman's spot on Union Pacific's Lawrence switcher. Being the junior switchman on the California coast for years, she was used to jobs that weren't so plum. What made it tough were a difficult yardmaster and her help, a switchman who outranked her but didn't want the responsibility of the foreman's spot.

The Lord Of The Night, Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

The article presents the author's reflection on the management of Southern Pacific after it was acquired by Union Pacific (UP). The year preceding the UP merger, 1995, everyone tried to earn the maximum they could in preparation for whatever union-negotiated guarantee would come down the pike. Downsizing hit this system hard. The union contract did away with the system seniority that provided trainmen the freedom to work anywhere on the railroad.

Nomination Of Stuart M. Basefsky: Suny Chancellor's Award For Excellence In Librarianship, Edward J. Lawler, Gordon Law

Stuart Basefsky

[Excerpt] Enclosed are a summary presentation and vita in support of Stuart M. Basefsky as the nominee of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations for the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship. Stuart is our senior reference librarian at the Catherwood Library having assumed his responsibilities here at the school in 1993.

Small Businesses In The Informal Economy: The Evidence Base, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

Small Businesses In The Informal Economy, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

The Hospital Yard, Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

Presents an article on working at a small switching yard in San Jose, California. Reason for thinking the switching yard as a hospital yard; Description of the yard; Details on workers at the yard.

Railroad Voices: Stories Of Railroad Life In America, Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

Stories of railroad life in America.

Sea Change: An Essay In Maritime Labour History, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

An essay length monograph on the life and times of E.V. Elliott (1902-1984), a prominent and militant Australian maritime trade union leader from the 1930s through to the 1970s.

An Appraisal Of Local Exchange And Trading Systems In The United Kingdom, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams