Exam 1 Review Management & Labor Relations

What was Labor frequently viewed as?

- A production input - No different from machines or raw materials

What is Management's perspective on collective bargaining?

- Adversarial negotiations do not promote trust and cooperation. - Lengthy, detailed contracts inhibit flexibility and involvement. - Labor laws are outdated.

Labor relations continue to be a relevant and dynamic area of study and practice because...

- All managers should understand labor relations. - United States labor laws affect both union and non-union workplaces. - Reveals consequences of poorly managed workforces. - Explains historical, social, and political influences on business. - Helps everyone understand and resolve conflict - Reveals how work and business are embedded in a complex environment

3rd controversial explanation: Employer resistance or opposition

- American managers are exceptionally hostile toward unions. - Strong tradition of using union avoidance tactics. - Failure to invest in nonunion operations - Actively fighting organization drives - Increased anti-union legislation in United States public sector.

Efficiency is important to the employment relationship because of its effect on:

- Competitiveness - Economic development - Economic prosperity

1st controversial explanation: Structural shifts

- Decline in traditionally unionized industries - Regional and demographic shifts - Increased numbers of women in the workforce - Increased education and skill levels

How can efficiency, equity, and voice clash?

- Equitable treatment might reduce flexibility and efficiency. - Employee voice might make decision making more cumbersome and less efficient. - Unions centralize power to better achieve equity, but become less responsive to individuals.

The Neoliberal School

- Focuses on the economic activity of self-interested agents. - Efficiency, equity, and voice achieved through free-market competition. - Idealized, perfect competition results in the optimal allocation and pricing of resources. - Conditions of the labor problem are not seen as exploitation: Employees are free to quit if they feel they are being exploited.

What are the main critical issues within human resources and industrial relations?

- Growing labor market disparities - Problems of low-wage workers trying to move out of poverty and support families. - Corporate pressures for cost control, quality, and flexibility to compete in a global, information-rich economy. - The need to educate individuals as lifelong learners because of ever-changing technologies. - Problems of work-life balance, especially for working mothers.

What is the crucial feature of collective bargaining?

- Management's authority to unilaterally establish conditions of employment is replaced by bilateral negotiations. - That workers have a collective voice

National Labor Union emphasized:

- Political activity to bring about legal reform. - Currency and banking reform, women's suffrage and a national labor political party.

2nd controversial explanation: Demand for union services has declined

- Unions not doing a good job of responding to the needs of a changing workforce. - Employers have improved their responsiveness to employees' needs. - Increased protective legislation has provided a substitute for unions.

What are the 3 controversial explanations why long-term private sector union density has declined?

1. Structural shifts 2. Demand for union services has declined 3. Employer resistance or opposition

The poor conditions of the labor problem were a problem for 2 broad reasons:

1. The societal or human perspective: - People should have better lives - Workers should be able to afford decent housing, clothing, and food. 2. The business perspective: - Absenteeism and turnover were costly.

What are the 3 Labor problems?

1. Today's critical issues are in human resources and industrial relations. 2. The critical human resources and industrial relations issue in the early 1900s was the labor problem. 3. The poor conditions

Pure and Simple Craft Unionism

25 national unions created a new labor federation in 1886 called the AFL.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

AFL was a union federation, not a labor union. - It provided financial assistance to striking unions. - A F L unions wholeheartedly endorsed a system of craft unionism.

Why would others oppose unions and legal protections?

Because they believe that there are better ways to achieve the desired objectives.

Industrial democracy

Belief that workers in a democratic society are entitled to the same democratic principles of participation in the workplace.

Human Resource Management School

Believes that the labor problem stems from poor management. - Poor selection, motivation, training, supervision

What did the HRM school believe to be the solution to the labor problem?

Better management.

What do some of the greatest challenges in labor relations arise from?

Conflicting goals

Objectives of Labor Relations

Efficiency, Equity, and Voice * Labor relations must strike a balance between these 3 conflicting goals. * United States public policy encourages collective bargaining Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his or her interests. * What are the alternative perspectives on what labor unions do? Secure better wages, protect against unfair treatment by management, provide voice and representation.

Employee voice has...

Employee voice has similar justifications, ranging from moral, religious, and psychological beliefs about the importance of human self-determination to political views of liberty and democracy

Representation gap

Employees say they want more representation in the workplace than they have. - One-third to one-half of nonunion workers would like a union in their workplace, mostly in the private sector. - Unions blame employer opposition to unions for the representation gap.

The Critical IR School believed...

Employers' dominant power in the workplace, and reinforced by significant influence over other societal institutions (for example, legal system and law enforcement)

What did the Neoliberal school believe to be the solution to the labor problem?

Ensure competition. - As long as there is (perfect) competition, employment outcomes are not seen as a problem. - Remove unnecessary government regulation.

Equity and voice are also consistent with what workers want, which is...

Fairness, justice, and security. Workers want influence over decisions that affect their job or work life. - Believe that they would enjoy their jobs more. - Believe that their employers would be more competitive.

National Labor Union

Founded in 1866 by William H. Sylvis, a Pennsylvania iron molder; united several unions into one single organization. - Only lasted 6 years -

Labor union

Group of workers who join together to influence the nature of their employment.

The Critical Industrial Relations School

Grows out of earlier "Marxist industrial relations" school, and also referred to as a radical perspective.

What does Labor Law do?

Labor law tries to balance property rights and labor rights in order to promote a balance between efficiency, equity, and voice.

What is Labor's perspective on collective bargaining?

Labor's perspective would be that the labor law is weak when collective bargaining. Weak because... - Penalties for violations are minimal - Delays are frequent - Employers can use captive audience speeches and permanent strike replacements. - Secondary boycotts are prohibited Weak when... - Private sector union density is less than 10 percent.

What are the important dimensions of the labor problem?

Long hours, low wages, unsafe conditions, and insecurity.

For employers, labor relations are about managing relationships with employees and labor unions in ways that promote organizational goals or cost-effective service delivery.

Most nonunion employers try to remain union-free through preventive labor relations strategies

You want to change your company's health care insurance provider, but only if the employees feel that it is a positive change. Can you handpick an employee committee to represent the other employees in discussions about new health insurance options?

No

You overhear two employees discussing a union during a break in the employee cafeteria. Can you stop their conversation?

No, but you can prevent them from handing out pro-union materials.

Uplift Unionism

Philosophy in which a union "aspires chiefly to elevate the moral, intellectual and social life of the worker". - Shorter working hours were needed so that workers would have greater time for education and moral betterment. - Ultimate goal was replacing capitalism with a system of producer cooperatives. - Knights of Labor was broadly inclusive.

How are conflicts generally resolved?

Privately through bargaining and other means by: - Individuals - Unions - Companies

Effeciency

Productive use of scarce resources for economic prosperity.

Collective bargaining

Representatives of the employer and employees negotiate employment terms and conditions. - Compensation - Personnel policies or procedures - Employee and employer rights and responsibilities - Union rights and responsibilities - Dispute resolution and ongoing decision making

Equity

Standard of fair treatment for employees.

What do Efficiency, Equity, and Voice ideally do?

Support each other in a virtuous cycle.

The Critical Industrial Relations School emphasizes

That capitalist institutions do not simply exist but are created by society. - Focuses on how dominant groups design and control institutions to serve their own interests.

What are the 4 Schools of Thought?

The Neoliberal School The Human Resource Management School [Unitarism] The Industrial Relations School [Pluralism] The Critical Industrial Relations School [Class-based]

Voice

The ability of employees to have meaningful input into workplace decisions.

The Industrial Relations School believed...

The labor problem stems from unequal bargaining power between corporations and individual workers. - The IR school accepts corporations as efficient, valuable organizations.

Union density

The percentage of workers who are union members.

What adds pressure to collective bargaining?

The pressure for competitiveness and quality.

Union contract

The provisions of a bargain that are written down and bound into a legally enforceable collective bargaining agreement.

How does the U.S. labor law protect collective voice and union-related activity to strike a balance between efficiency, equity, and voice?

Through: - Increasing the purchasing power of workers and reducing disruptive strike activity. - Achieving fair standards and protections against exploitation. - Providing democracy in the workplace.

What is the Human resource management philosophy?

To align the interests of workers and the firm via better management.

How did the Industrial Relations school of thought view labor unions?

Unions are important as a way to better balance corporate power in the labor market. Can provide meaningful voice to employees by being independent rather than controlled by companies.

How did the neoliberal school of thought view labor unions?

Unions are seen as labor market monopolies that interfere with the invisible hand of free market competition; distort efficient outcomes.

Why might society and workers support unionization?

United States labor law assumes that corporations have greater power than individual workers.

The Great Uprising of 1877

Unsuccessful railroad strike to protest wage cuts and the use of federal troops against strikers; the first nationwide work stoppage in American history. The 1870s ushered in an era of intense violent labor conflict that would continue into the 20th century. The Great Uprising of 1877 laid the foundation for future labor-management conflict rather than cooperation.

What is Work?

Work is a fully human activity such that employees are entitled to fair treatment and opportunities to have input into decisions that affect their daily lives.

You implement a new pay-for-performance program and five employees together decide to refuse to work until the program is withdrawn. Can you fire the employees?

You cannot fire the employees. It is a group of people coming together to address issues. - If it is just 1 employee, you would have a conversation with this employee. You don't have to agree or believe, but you can't fire them for this thought. - If they refuse to work, they you can fire them. You cannot fire them for coming together to talk about workplace practices. - If they refuse to work they essentially have quit their job.

You are interviewing applicants for a Web designer position in your org. One applicant has a Graphic Communications International Union day planner and pen. Can you refuse to hire this qualified individual because you don't want any union troublemakers in your organization?

You don't have to hire them, but you cannot NOT hire them for this reasoning.

The critical human resources and industrial relations issue in the early 1900s was...

the labor problem. - Undesirable outcomes of inequitable and contentious, or oppressive and exploitative, employment relationship.

What did the Critical IR school believe to be the solution to the labor problem?

• Restructuring the nature of capitalism - For some: replacing capitalism with socialism - For others: significant changes in power structures and influence

How did the HRM school of thought view labor unions?

• Unions are unnecessary "outside, third parties" - If a company has well-designed HR practices, workers will be satisfied and will not support a union. • But companies get the union they deserve - If a company is practicing bad management, workers will seek unionization to combat these poor practices.