Showing papers in "Industrial and Labor Relations Review in 1997"

The impact of psychiatric disorders on labor market outcomes

Abstract: Analyzing data on 2,225 men and 2,401 women from the National Comorbidity Survey, the authors examine the impact of psychiatric disorders on employment and, among those employed, work hours and income. They find that psychiatric disorders significantly reduced employment among both men and women. They also find evidence of small reductions in the conditional work hours of men and a substantial drop in the conditional income of men and women, although these findings are somewhat sensitive to the estimation methods and specification of the model. This study examines the impact of psychiatric disorders (both mental and substance use disorders) on employment rates, work hours, and personal income. Although physical disability is known to be an important determinant of labor market outcomes, less is known about the influence of mental and substance use disorders. Diagnosable psychiatric disorders are highly prevalent, affecting about 30% of the non-institutionalized U.S. population in any given year and almost 50% over the lifespan (Kessler et al. 1994). Many of these illnesses are chronic and cause severe impairment. Psychiatric disorders have been

Organizations in America : analyzing their structures and human resource practices

Abstract: PART ONE: THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS STUDY Organizational Properties and Practices - Arne L Kalleberg et al Design of the National Organizations Study - Joe L Spaeth and Diane P O'Rourke American Organizations and Their Environments - Peter V Marsden, Cynthia R Cook, and David Knoke PART TWO: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES Bureaucratic Structures for Coordination and Control - Peter V Marsden, Cynthia R Cook, and Arne L Kalleberg Formalizing the Employment Relation - Arne L Kalleberg et al Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance - Arne L Kalleberg and James W Moody PART THREE: ORGANIZATIONS' HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES The Staffing Process - Peter V Marsden Recruitment and Selection Methods Job Training in US Organizations - David Knoke and Arne L Kalleberg Training, Unions, and Internal Labor Markets - David Knoke and Yoshito Ishio Organizational Differences in Earnings - Arne L Kalleberg and Mark E Van Buren The Structure of Organizational Earnings Inequality - Arne L Kalleberg and Mark E Van Buren Cui Bono? Employee Benefit Packages - David Knoke PART FOUR: ORGANIZATIONS AND THE CHANGING WORKFORCE Contingent Employment in Organizations - Arne L Kalleberg and Kathryn Schmidt Organizational Patterns of Gender Segregation - Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Arne L Kalleberg, and Peter V Marsden Gender Differences in Organizational Commitment - Peter V Marsden, Arne L Kalleberg, and Cynthia R Cook Influences of Work Positions and Family Roles Conclusions and Prospects - Arne L Kalleberg et al

The Labor Market Status of Immigrants: Effects of the Unemployment Rate at Arrival and Duration of Residence:

Abstract: Combining Current Population Survey samples from November 1979, April 1983, June 1986, and June 1988, all of which included data on country of birth and year of immigration, the authors examine pat...

Succeeding Generations: On the Effects of Investments in Children.

Abstract: This study examines the status of children in the United States. It uses data up to 1988 from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics an ongoing longitudinal survey of 1700 children. The emphasis is on the deteriorating status of Americas children and on the causes of this decline. The authors first examine the factors affecting the chances that children will be economically successful. They then introduce their research in the context of previous studies on the determinants of childrens success. Next they attempt to sort out some of the relationships among the various possible investments in children. The next few chapters look at the determinants of educational attainment nonmarital births and welfare recipiency and economic inactivity. A final chapter summarizes the findings of this research and discusses policy implications.

Loyalty, Voice, and Intent to Exit a Union Firm: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis

Abstract: Drawing on economics and organizational behavior concepts, the authors develop a model of employee “voice” (defined in terms of the frequency of grievance filing) and employee intent to exit the firm. They test the model using data on a sample of nonmanagement employees of a large multinational telecommunications firm in 1991. Employees' loyalty to the firm and their perception of the grievance procedure's effectiveness are the main independent variables. In tests that focus exclusively on employees who reported having been treated unfairly by the employer at some time, loyalty is found to have had a consistently strong negative association with both the exercise of voice and intent to exit the firm. One implication of these findings is that loyal employees who experienced unfair workplace treatment primarily responded by suffering in silence.

Unions, Employers' Associations, and Wage-Setting Institutions in Northern and Central Europe, 1950–1992

Abstract: The eight countries examined in this study—Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—have long been viewed as exemplifying “corporatist” industrial relations ...

Gender Differences in Days Lost from Work Due to Illness

Abstract: The author uses data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey to investigate the extent and determinants of gender differences in days lost from work due to illness. She finds that for both men and women, health status measures, such as self-reported health status and medical events, more consistently explained absenteeism than did economic factors such as wages and the presence of sick leave. The presence of young children increased women's, but not men's, probability of missing work, as well as women's number of absences for those who missed work in 1987. Among men who were absent from work in 1987, however, the presence of children in day care increased the number of days lost from work. In that regard, those men, most of whom were likely to be either single parents or married with a working wife, behaved more like mothers with young children than like other men.

Employment Relations in a Changing World Economy

Abstract: В сборнике представлены важнейшие труды экономистов, политологов, социологов, ученых в области права и индустриальных отношений. Все авторы уделяют много внимания ключевой роли отношений занятости в процессах, связанных с успешным функционированием отдельных фирм и конкурентоспособностью целых отраслей во всем мире. Все работы, опубликованные в данной книге, основываются на схожих предпосылках. Основываясь на данных по 11 странам ОЭСР (США, Великобритания, Канада, Франция, Германия, Италия, Испания, Норвегия, Швеция, Австрия и Япония) авторы анализируют изменения в практиках занятости в этих странах. Освещаются вопросы динамики отношений занятости во всем мире. В заключении суммируются результаты и приводятся рекомендации для дальнейшего изучения этих вопросов.

Ergonomics, Employee Involvement, and the Toyota Production System: A Case Study of Nummi'S 1993 Model Introduction

Abstract: New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) is a GM-Toyota joint venture that has been lauded by some for achieving performance based on high employee involvement, and criticized by others for intensifying work and harming workers. In 1993, OSHA cited NUMMI for paying insufficient attention to ergonomic issues during the introduction of a new car model. The authors analyze the origins of NUMMI's ergonomic problems and the responses of the company, union, and regulators. They also discuss a more ergonomically successful model introduction two years later. This case suggests that although employee involvement does not eliminate all divergence of interests between management and workers, it can change the terms of that divergence. When management reliance on employee involvement is complemented by strong employee voice and strong regulators, managers may find it in their interest to improve safety as a means of maintaining high employee commitment and thereby improving business performance.

The Attitudinal Legacy of Communist Labor Relations

Abstract: This study of workers' attitudes compares data from International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) surveys for former communist countries in Europe with ISSP data for Western countries over the perio...

Diverging male wage inequality in the United States and Canada, 1981-1988: Do institutions explain the difference?

Abstract: The U.S. and Canadian economies have much in common, including similar collective bargaining structures. During the period 1981–88, however, although both countries witnessed a decline in the percentage of workers belonging to unions and an increase in hourly wage inequality, those changes were much more pronounced in the United States than in Canada. Using data on men in Canada and the United States in 1981 and 1988 (from the Labour Force Survey and supplements to the Current Population Survey), the authors study the effect of labor market institutions on changes in wage inequality by computing simple counterfactuals such as the distribution of wages that would prevail if all workers were paid according to the observed nonunion wage schedule. Their results suggest that much more severe declines in the unionization rate in the United States than in Canada account for two-thirds of the differential growth in wage inequality between the two countries.

More bad news for smokers? the effects of cigarette smoking on wages

Abstract: Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data, the authors examine the effect of smoking on wages. Their analysis controls for differences in individual charaeteristics that may be correlated with both smoking and wages, including unobservable person-specific characteristics that are constant over time, and unobservable characteristics that are constant within a family. Estimates from alternative specifications indicate that smoking reduced wages by roughly 4–8%. Empirical tests of three potential explanations for this finding yield no conclusive results.

The role of union strategies in nlrb certification elections

Abstract: Analyzing 1986–87 data from 261 NLRB certification election campaigns, the author finds that union tactic variables explain more of the variance in election outcomes than any other group of variabl...

The Influence of Industrial Relations Factors on U.S. Foreign Direct Investment Abroad

Abstract: Although managers of multinational companies have identified labor practices and regulations, access to skilled labor, and similar factors as important considerations in foreign direct investment decision-making, few studies have empirically examined the influence of industrial relations factors on foreign direct investment. Applying a transaction costs framework to U.S. Department of Commerce data published in 1992, the author examines the influence of several key industrial relations variables on U.S. foreign direct investment across nine industries and nineteen OECD-member countries. Across the countries studied, U.S. foreign direct investment was negatively affected by the presence of high levels of union penetration, centralized collective bargaining structures, stiff government restrictions on layoffs, and pervasive contract extension policies; it was positively affected by high levels of education and policies requiring works councils.

Enriching Production: Perspectives on Volvo's Uddevalla plant as an alternative to lean production

Abstract: Enriching Production was first published by Avebury in 1995. The book was quickly sold out and is now made available again. Enriching Production was edited by professor Ake Sandberg, Arbetslivsinstitutet/ National Institute for Working Life and KTH The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Enriching Production was followed up by a symposium on the general theme of ‘Good work and productivity’. The papers were collected in a special issue of Economic and Industrial Democracy, Vol. 19, No 1, February 1998. There will also be follow up articles on Volvo and alternative production systems in a forthcoming reader Absolut management. Scandinavian perspectives on management in the new working life, to be published by SNS forlag, Stockholm, 2007/2008. Abstract Both researchers and practitioners in industrial organization ask themselves today whether lean production is the only possible model for the future. Enriching Production proposes a radically different alternative, which was put into practice at Volvo’s Uddevalla plant during its brief life span. Skilled workers in autonomous teams could altogether abandon the assembly line. With a work content of several hours they built cars according to customer order, with a short delivery time, thus avoiding stocks. In spite of its good performance the plant was closed after only a few years without having developed its full potential. Enriching Production explains the design of the Uddevalla plant and tries to understand its closure against a background of organizational politics and Volvo’s production structure. In comparative chapters the NUMMI and Saturn plants in the US and European car manufacturers are contrasted to the Uddevalla model and also to Volvo’s Kalmar plant with still another form of group work. Chapters on social problems with lean production and recent developments in Japanese car manufacturing also contribute to an understanding of where the car building industry and the organization of industrial production is heading. Although the Uddevalla plant in its original form was closed, the vision of competitive systems of production that do not destroy but enhance human competencies and in a a wider sense a human working life lives on. Enriching Production contributes by reminding us that under certain circumstances good and competitive ways of arranging production are possible. Content Preface The book and its authors The Uddevalla experience in perspective Ake Sandberg Part I Volvo’s innovative Uddevalla and Kalmar plants. The creation of a new production system at the Volvo automobile assembly plant in Uddevalla, Sweden, Kajsa Ellegard Production system design – a brief summary of some Swedish design efforts, Tomas Engstrom and Lars Medbo The Uddevalla plant: Why did it succeed with a holistic approach and why did it come to an end? Lennart Nilsson Volvo Kalmar – twice a pioneer Thomas Sandberg Part II The performance of the Uddevalla plant in a comparative perspective. The fate of the branch plants – performance versus power Christian Berggren Assembly skills, process engineering and engineering design Henrik Blomgren and Bo Karlson Building for new production concepts Colin Clipson, Jesper Steen, Anders Tornqvist and Peter Ullmark Designed for learning: A tale of two auto plants Paul S. Adler and Robert E. Cole Limits to innovation in work organization? Bob Hancke and Saul Rubinstein Group work and the reception of Uddevalla in German car industry Ulrich Jurgens Part III Volvo car plants internationally and the alliance with Renault. Volvo truck and bus in the UK: The clash of the Titans Paul Thompson and Terry Wallace Volvo-Gent: A Japanese transplant in Belgium or beyond? Rik Huys and Geert Van Hootegem First DAF, then Volvo and now Mitsubishi Ben Dankbaar Missing the road: Working life at Volvo Nova Scotia L. Anders Sandberg Volvo in Malaysia Hing Ai Yun The origins of team work at Renault Michel Freyssenet Fait accompli? A Machiavellian interpretation of the Renault–Volvo merger Karel Williams, Colin Haslam and Sukhdev Johal Part IV Beyond lean production Japanese work policy: Opportunity, challenge or threat? Norbert Altmann Lean production in the automobile industry: Second thoughts Dan Jonsson Humanization of the production system and work at Toyota Motor Co and Toyota Motor Kyushu Koichi Shimizu Recent developments at Toyota Motor Co Terje Gronning Social preconditions for lean management and its further development Paul Lillrank Lean production. The Micro-Macro dimension, employment and the welfare state Peter Auer Key words Automobile, Automobile industry, car makers, employment relationships, team working, team leaders, lean production, reflective production, moving line, fordism, taylorism, toyotism, Volvo, Volvo Uddevalla plant, Volvo Kalmar plant, Volvo Gent plant, division of work, NUMMI, SATURN, Toyota, Volkswagen, Renault, Mitsubishi, DAF. Concerned disciplines Economics, Ergonomics, Management, Geography, History, History of Sciences and Technologies, Engineering, Cognitive sciences, Sociology. Writing context References, commentaries, critics “This book -- a careful selection of well informed and provoking papers -- provides a solid basis for a reassessment of the socio-technical experiments at the Uddevalla plant and for a critical debate of the lean production system in industry.” Prof. Dr. Frieder Naschold “This volume should come to represent a classic for all those interested in different national and international trajectories of work and design in industry.” Alan Jenkins, in Organization Studies “An invaluable aspect of Sandberg’s book is the wealth of comparative information, not only about other Volvo plants in Sweden, but also with regard to those in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Canada. … this invaluable collection of readings raises a wide range of additional questions which takes the critical debate about lean production significantly further. Its message is not only of relevance to academics, and managers unconvinced by the evangelical enthusiasm of many advocates of lean production, but also to those trade unions which are keen to preserve their independence through the development of new bargaining strategies in the face of an onslaught of new management techniques.” Dave Beale, in Industrial Relations Journal “… this is an important book and one to be read by academics and practitioners alike. Although it appears as a narrative relating to a single company, it goes beyond this; asking what it is we seek from work reforms.” Peter Cressey, in New Technology, Work and Employment “This book closes the chapter on Uddevalla’s heroic experiment. It helps the sympathetic reader understand what really happened there, and it draws out the positive lessons of Uddevalla for the very unfinished chapter of ongoing worldwide production and work reorganization in today’s turbulent markets.” Lowell Turner, in Industrial and Labour Relations Review “…essential reading for all those interested in the auto industry and the challenging innovations associated with Volvo.” Russel Lansbury, in Economic and Industrial Democracy “…detailed and compelling…Enriching Production provides researchers with a very deep vein of information and analysis.” Steve Babson, in Work and Occupations “This is a valuable collection…for researchers in this area, and for those who teach in the field, this is a useful addition to the literature.” Human Resource Management Journal “By its rich content, Enriching production is a good vehicle for keeping the discourse on alternative production systems rolling; and on the road” Lars Normann Mikkelsen, in Acta Sociologica Curent relevance See also ✔ Freyssenet M., “La production reflexive, une alternative a la production de masse et a la production au plus juste?”, Sociologie du Travail, n°3/1995, pp 365-388. Edition numerique, freyssenet.com, 2007, 320 ko, ISSN 1776-0941. Version modifiee et augmentee en anglais : Freyssenet M., “Reflective production: an alternative to mass-production and lean production?”, Economic and Industrial Democracy, vol. 19, n°1, february 1998, pp 91-117. Digital publication, freyssenet.com , 2006, 280 Ko, ISSN 7116-0941. ✔ Charron E., Freyssenet M., “L’usine d’Uddevalla dans la trajectoire de Volvo”, Actes du GERPISA, n°9, mars 1994, pp 161-183. Editions numeriques, gerpisa.univ-evry.fr, 2001, 88 Ko; freyssenet.com , 2006, 1 Mo. Version en espagnol, Charron E., Freyssenet M., “La ‘produccion reflexiva’ en la fabrica Volvo de Uddevalla”, Sociologia del trabajo, 1996, 27, pp 103-129. ✔ Charron E., Freyssenet M., “L’usine d’Uddevalla dans la trajectoire de Volvo, annexe photographique”, Actes du GERPISA, n°9, mars 1994, pp 161-183. Edition numerique, freyssenet.com , 2006, 10,4 Mo. ✔ Freyssenet M., L’usine sans chaines. Volvo Uddevalla. Diaporama. 63 photos. Edition numerique, freyssenet.com, 2006, 13,7 Mo. Last presentation page updating 2007.03.14 Date of the putting on line of the downloadable book 2007.03.18, Sandberg A. (ed.), Enriching Production. Perspectives on Volvo’s Uddevalla plant as an alternative to lean production, Avebury, Aldershot (UK), 1995, 459 p. Digital edition, New Preface, Ake Sandberg, Stockholm, 2007. Edition numerique, freyssenet.com, 2007, 5,7 Mo, ISSN 7116-0941.

Organized industrial relations in Europe : what future?

Abstract: Introduction - farewell to Labour Market Associations? Organized versus disorganized decentralization as a map for industrial relations, Franz Traxler. Part I The logic and structure of associational action. Part II The neo-liberal challenge to organized industrial relations - four country studies. Part III The challenge from industrial change - the case of the financial sector. Part IV Associations and public policy. Conclusion - reconstructing corporatism? Organized decentralization and other paradoxes, Colin Crouch.

The gender earnings gap among college-educated workers

Abstract: The gender earnings gap among full-time workers narrowed substantially in the 1980s. Previous research has established that increases in the amount of and returns to work experience and schooling among women were primarily responsible for that trend. This paper, which uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and the High School and Beyond Senior Cohort (Class of 1980), examines to what extent college schooling characteristics other than number of years, such as grades and major field, contributed to the narrowing of the gap. Changes in the estimated effects of college grades and college major, the author finds, can account for almost all of the large decline in the gender earnings gap between 1979 and 1986 among young college-educated workers. Most of this effect apparently resulted from growth in the market price of women's skills relative to men's for a given major.

Worker Performance and Group Incentives: A Case Study

Abstract: The author uses monthly, individual-level data collected from two units within a large U.S. financial corporation to estimate employees' response to the introduction of a group incentive plan. The findings indicate that the incentive plan caused performance to converge to a standard: the initially least productive workers improved greatly, whereas the performance of the initially most productive workers did not change. However, the evidence suggests that the incentive plan was successful in increasing the average level of productivity across the work group.

Workers#x0027; Compensation Recipiency in Union and Nonunion Workplaces:

Abstract: This study estimates union effects on workers' compensation indemnity claims during 1977-92, based on individual panel data constructed from the March Current Population Survey. Union members were substantially more likely to receive workers' compensation benefits than were similar nonunion workers, and they were more sensitive to variation in benefit levels and waiting periods. The authors suggest that differences in union, as compared to nonunion, workplaces arise because workers are provided with information from their union representatives, supervisors are more likely to inform injured workers about workers’ compensation filing procedures and less likely to discourage workers from filing claims, workers are less likely to fear being penalized for filing claims, an d management has less discretion and ability to monitor workers and penalize them for questionable claims. The findings suggest that communication of relevant information to workers is an important determinant of workers' compensation recipiency.

Wage changes and intrafirm job mobility over the business cycle: Two case studies

Abstract: Despite the many reasons to expect sluggish wage adjustment, recent evidence suggests that real wages are quite procyclical (growing more rapidly during economic expansions than during recessions) and that this wage procyclicality pertains even to workers who stay with the same employer. One possible explanation for these findings is the old hypothesis that a portion of firms' cyclical adjustment of labor costs is achieved not by changing the wages paid in particular jobs, but by changing the quality of labor assigned to those jobs. The authors' analysis of interwar personnel data from the Ford Motor Company and the A.M. Byers Company supports that hypothesis. The authors recognize that case studies of only two firms cannot be definitive, but they conclude that cyclicality in workers' job assignments deserves further attention.

Delayed Formal on-the-job Training

Abstract: The fact that an employer and employee incur a loss when a trained worker changes jobs provides an incentive for on-the-job training to be selectively provided to workers who are less likely to cha...

A Puzzling Aspect of the Effect of Advance Notice on Unemployment.

Abstract: Displaced workers with generous periods of advance notice are more likely than their non-notified counterparts to avoid post-displacement unemployment altogether, but once unemployed, they tend to escape from unemployment much more slowly. The authors, using data from the five-year retrospective 1988 and 1990 Displaced Worker Surveys, examine three potential explanations for this puzzle: delaying behavior induced by the receipt of unemployment insurance, nonrandom distribution of notice to workers, and previous studies' failure to appropriately incorporate the pre-displacement search time of notified workers. This analysis supports the third explanation. After allowing for less intense search prior to displacement than following displacement, the authors find that the pattern of escape rates for otherwise observationally equivalent workers does not differ by notification status.

Compensating Differentials and Unmeasured Ability in the Labor Market for Nurses: Why Do Hospitals Pay More?

Abstract: Nurses employed in hospitals realize a large wage advantage relative to nurses employed elsewhere. This paper examines alternative sources of the hospital premium, a topic of some interest given the current shifting of medical care out of hospitals. Whereas cross-sectional estimates indicate a hospital RN wage advantage of roughly 20 percent, longitudinal analysis suggests that a third to a half of the advantage is due to unmeasured worker ability. The remainder is likely to reflect compensating differentials for hospital disamenities. We further probe possible sources of the RN hospital premium by examining the receipt of fringe benefits, differences in cognitive ability as measured by AFQT test scores, differences in the quality of experience, the role of labor unions and rents, earnings on second jobs, and the magnitude of wage differentials associated with work shift.

Does a Ged Lead to More Training, Post-Secondary Education, and Military Service for School Dropouts?:

Abstract: Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for the years 1979–91, the authors investigate how school dropouts' acquisition of a General Educational Development certificate (GED) affected the probability that they would obtain training, post-secondary education, or military service. The authors use the longitudinal data to estimate prototypical training and education profiles. They find that the probability that a dropout participated in post-secondary education or non-company training was greater after GED receipt than before for both men and women. Still, less than half of GED recipients obtained post-secondary education or training by age 26.