Showing papers in "Industrial and Labor Relations Review in 1961"

The Human Side of Enterprise.

Abstract: \"What are your assumptions (implicit as well as explicit) about the most effective way to manage people?\" So began Douglas McGregor in this 1960 management classic. It was a seemingly simple question he asked, yet it led to a fundamental revolution in management. Today, with the rise of the global economy, the information revolution, and the growth of knowledge-driven work, McGregor's simple but provocative question continues to resonate-perhaps more powerfully than ever before. Heralded as one of the most important pieces of management literature ever written, a touchstone for scholars and a handbook for practitioners, The Human Side of Enterprise continues to receive the highest accolades nearly half a century after its initial publication. Influencing such major management gurus such as Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, McGregor's revolutionary Theory Y-which contends that individuals are self-motivated and self-directed-and Theory X-in which employees must be commanded and controlled-has been widely taught in business schools, industrial relations schools, psychology departments, and professional development seminars for over four decades. In this special annotated edition of the worldwide management classic, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Senior Research Scientist in MIT's Sloan School of Management and Engineering Systems Division, shows us how today's leaders have successfully incorporated McGregor's methods into modern management styles and practices. The added quotes and commentary bring the content right into today's debates and business models. Now more than ever, the timeless wisdom of Douglas McGregor can light the path towards a management style that nurtures leadership capability, creates effective teams, ensures internal alignment, achieves high performance, and cultivates an authentic, value-driven workplace--lessons we all need to learn as we make our way in this brave new world of the 21st century.

Bargaining in grievance settlement : the power of industrial work groups

Abstract: Bargaining in Grievance Settlement: The Power of Industrial Work Groups. By James W. Kuhn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961. xii, 206 pp. $4.50. This refreshingly realistic evaluation of the grievance procedure at the shop level is based on interviews in twenty plants in nine industries, with special emphasis given to rubber and electrical products. Professor Kuhn of Columbia University compares what he calls the "orthodox theory" of grievance handling with what Neil Chamberlain has called "fractional bargaining." According to orthodox theory, the purpose of the grievance procedure is essentially judicial: to apply and interpret the contract-but not to change it. Both sides are assumed to have given up their economic weapons for the life of the contract, and to have agreed to adjudicate all differences through logical, dispassionate discussion and, where necessary, arbitration. The result is "industrial jurisprudence," a body of written and common law which, binding both parties, will substantially reduce industrial conflict. Kuhn rejects this time-honored ogma as unrealistic. The grievance procedure, he holds, neither is nor should be judicial. Grievance bargaining, as he observed it, is a power struggle between work groups and lower level supervisors, not a legal procedure. Management and union officials-.. more often than not settle grievances or their underlying problems on the basis of their relative bargaining position in the plant. They may refer or appeal to their rights under the agreement, but they are not apt to respect he letter of the agreement or even its spirit, if the shop bargaining position does not support it. In practice, the level of output and the conditions under which men work are determined neither unilaterally by the supervisor nor legally by the contract, but through informal negotiations between supervisors and subordinates. When an impasse is reached in these negotiations, the workers may use weapons to strengthen their position: wildcat strikes, slowdowns, overliteral compliance with rules, and even sabotage. Supervisors have weapons too: refusal to grant overtime, strict application of contract provisions where these favor management, tight discipline which keeps men to their jobs, and so forth. Just how favorable the final agreement is to each of the parties is determined by their respective bargaining strengths. Often pressure from top management to maintain production schedules at all costs forces foremen to give in to extracontractual pressures. In addition, foremen feel that any formal grievance will result in intervention by the industrial relations department, and too many grievances wil make their record look bad. Officials at top levels of both union and management normally oppose fractional bargaining because it reduces their own power. Wildcat strikes, at times, are directed against the union almost as much as against management; if they get out of hand, management may be forced to negotiate with the informal work-group leaders rather than with the union bureaucrats. Thus, Kuhn concludes, extracontractual pressures are not a sign of passing immaturity which can be eliminated through better training or a stronger contract. Instead of trying to suppress fractional bargaining altogether, it might be healthier to institutionalize it, perhaps through permitting shop-level negotiations to modify or elaborate on the master contract. Plant-level agreements, which are becoming increasingly important in the automobile industry, may be a step in this direction. Kuhn views fractional bargaining as

Turnover, Absence, and Transfer Rates as Indicators of Employee Dissatisfaction with Repetitive Work:

Abstract: It is frequently alleged that the extreme division of labor or simplification of tasks in mass-production industries is a major source of job dissatisfaction. Moreover, according to this view, workers typically express their discontent with the monotony of highly repetitive jobs in high rates of absenteeism and labor turnover, or by seeking transfers to less repetitive work. The findings of the study reported in this article dispute the usefulness of such personnel phenomena as indicators of the degree of employee dissatisfaction with repetitive work. A variety of other job conditions submerged the effect, if any, of repetitiveness on turnover, absenteeism, and transfer rates in two manufacturing companies studied by the author. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

Factors Determining the Labor-Force Participation of Married Women

Abstract: Analysis of changes in the size and composition of the American labor force has generally depended on data derived from general population and labor-force surveys such as the decennial census. Data from these sources limit severely the extent to which the interrelationships among various factors influencing labor force participation can be investigated, nor do such data permit prediction of which individuals will or will not enter the labor force. This study of a sample of married women in St. Paul, Minnesota, attempted an analysis of the interrelationships among a set of variables selected because of their presumed influence on the labor-force participation of such women. Previous employment experience was found to be the single, most important predictor of labor-force participation, but was modified by such factors as age and the presence of small children in the home. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

The Trade Union in Soviet Social Insurance: Historical Development and Present Functions

Abstract: As our knowledge of social institutions in the Soviet Union advances with the expansion of cultural and educational exchange between East and West, it is becoming evident that trade unions in that country play a much more significant role than was often attributed to them. One of the areas in which they have an important function is in the administration of social insurance benefits to active members of the labor force. In this capacity, as an instrument of the state and party, the unions serve primarily to promote labor discipline and increase worker efficiency. This article traces the history of the unions' social insurance function, describes the relationship of the social insurance system to trade union structure, and discusses the extent and significance of the unions' social insurance activities in Soviet industry. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

The Wage Pattern in the United States, 1946–1957

Abstract: The influence of pattern bargaining on wage movements in American industry during the post-World War II years has long been recognized, but there has been little systematic effort to identify the pattern setters, to trace the pattern, and to analyze its diffusion among bargaining situations outside of the basic pattern-setting group of firms and industries. These tasks are attempted in this article which covers experience during the period, 1946-1957. One of the significant conclusions is that traditional explanations of industrial wage movements have neglected the technical, institutional, and economic interrelationships among the key bargainers, which tend to produce a kind of "demonstration effect" in collective bargaining. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

A Test of the Theory of Geographic Mobility

Abstract: The ability of wage differentials to perform the function of allocating labor supplies, as posited by conventional economic theory, is the central issue of recent research on labor mobility. Most mobility studies, however, have taken the local labor market as the framework for study and analysis of interfirm, interindustry, or interoccupational movements of workers. This article is concerned with ruralurban and interregional worker movements with respect to appropriate differences in money wages. The results tend to support the hypothesis that the flows of workers in movement are typically from areas of low net advantage to areas of high net advantage, as measured by income differentials. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

On the Folklore of the Backward-Sloping Supply Curve

Abstract: The conceptual validity of the backward-sloping, short-run labor supply curve has long been a popular article of faith among professional as well as lay economists. Although the author of this article does not deny the possibility that such a supply schedule may exist, he attempts to show that its regressive segment probably lies well outside the range within which labor demand schedules are likely to intersect the supply curve. Moreover, he argues, if such a regressive supply curve exists, it is not reversible, and therefore is not a true supply curve in the conventional sense. In a mass-consumption economy, at least, income and labor effort are more likely to be positively related to a very substantial degree, and it is even becoming increasingly doubtful that the traditional concept of labor supply is relevant to so-called underdeveloped economies. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

The new industrial relations in Ghana

Abstract: Among a number of the newly independent nations that have emerged from their former colonial status in the decades since World War II, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Western forms of economic and social organization are being bent to the service of the state. Because of their importance for rapid economic growth as well as their significance as an instrument of political power, trade unions are among the most important of the organizations which are being reshaped in the interest of national purpose. Such a development is taking place in Ghana: union membership is virtually compulsory in wage employment, only officially approved labor organizations may exist, and trade union structure and government are becoming highly centralized. The legislative developments by which these changes are being accomplished are described and analyzed in this article. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

Right-to-Work Laws — Symbols or Substance?

Abstract: In recent years, some students of industrial relations have concluded that the substantive issues in the continuing controversy over "right-to-work" legislation are much less important than the symbolic ones. Labor and management groups, according to this view, are basically engaged in a struggle to win public support for their respective objectives, but the laws have had little effect on the balance of economic power in the labor market. The author of this discussion contests this view. His analysis of union success in voluntary, recruitment of members and of the effects of a loss of union security on union membership and revenues leads him to conclude that basic practical considerations may be at stake in the right-to-work issue. Tentatively at least, he urges, the verdict on the right-to-work laws should he withheld until there has been more research on their actual effects on union strength and collective bargaining. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

Wage Behavior in the Postwar Period: An Empirical Analysis.

Abstract: cussion of the revolutionary general strike follows and includes the Russian experience of 1905 and 1917; the German Spartacists; Spain; Latin America; Denmark in 1944, and Hungary in 1956. In a third part, a discussion of the theory of the general strike, the social hazards involved, the logic and the trends are given. A fourth part is a lengthy appendix of thumbnail sketches of general strikes not recorded in the body of the book; it covers Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and Japan. Professor Crook tells us that in its origin the general strike was revolutionary in intent, and a left-wing theory of the general strike emerged; but not all general strikes have been revolutionary. It stands to reason, however, that a revolutionary general strike is a threat to existing government. Furthermore, with class war as its central theme it cannot be mistaken. By contrast, he points out that the promoters of a political general strike contemplate no subversion or violation of constitutional principles. They are usually calling for justice through more vigorous observance of laws that are already on the books or they are seeking the repeal of a discriminatory law or to unseat the government officials on grounds of misfeasance or nonfeasance in office. In such strikes the citizens believe themselves to be acting to preserve the rights and freedoms of the people. The programs are constructive in intent even though they may seem to the conservative class or the government to smack of revolution. He does not deny, but affirms that there may be a tendency when Communists are present in labor's ranks or in the country for the political strike to be diverted into a revolutionary one. In both the revolutionary and political general strikes, Professor Crook shows, the parties in contest are workers as citizens over against the government. In the economic strikes, on the other hand, the workers as employees are pitted against the employers. The leaders of such an economic general strike are innocent of any intention to impinge in any way upon the regularly constituted government. However, in its administration, as is also true in the political strike, the fact cannot be ignored that even though the leaders adopt methods of administration from the best of motives and with concern for community welfare, some of the functions of government may be taken over temporarily. Hence, there develops the impression that it, too, has a revolutionary purpose. The most obvious change in the general strike in the last three decades is one of frequency. As a result, one of the strategies in all general strikes, the shock of surprise, has lost a good deal of its force. Another trend is a more determined growth of middle class or professional group opposition. At the same time, Professor Crook sees a growing use of the general strike \"by business and professional men to force moderation from dictators and military Juntas.\" Also, in recent general strikes he notes a tendency for the authorities and public to mete out severe penalties. The most important pattern, however, has been the increasing role of the Communists in using the general strike or seeking to intervene in the general strike situation, whatever its origin, \"to take it over from non-Communist organized labor and to 'patent' it for the purpose of ultimate revolution.\" The final conclusion is that, in spite of the increase in resort to the general strike, the odds against a successful general strike are still very high.

Smith and Marshall on the Individual's Supply of Labor: A Note

Abstract: Labor supply functions are by definition the summation of the varied responses of individuals to the prices, broadly defined, offered for their services. Although the variability of response has long been acknowledged, both theoretical and inductive work on the individual supply of labor has been neglected in favor of simplifying assumptions about the underlying structure of aggregative supply schedules. In this note, the author brings together and contrasts the respective views of Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall on the individual supply of labor. In tracing the ideas of the two men on this issue, this note also highlights a facet of the change in the method of economic analysis during its development as a system of ideas. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

Union participation in plant decision - making

Abstract: In recent years, especially since the 1959 steel strike, there has been active concern about the "hardening" of labor-management relations. At issue is the definition of the territory of management functions or rights that will remain outside the scope of collective bargaining. Despite the clamor and often self-serving declarations of policy by both unions and managers on this issue, little is known in a systematic way about the extent and depth of union participation in management decision-making, or about the factors involved in their variation between companies and localities. This article reports the findings of a study that compares the scope and depth of union participation in representative companies in three different economic and social settings, and which attempts to identify the factors contributing to changes in union participation and in union and management attitudes on the specific issues involved over time. In this latter respect, economic pressures as well as personal and institutional variables appear to influence shifts in the scope and depth of union participation and the underlying attitudes of the parties. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)