Workplace Governance Options

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Workplace Governance Options
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THE LABOR PROBLEM in the 20th Century

• The critical HR IR issue of the 20th century
  was The Labor Problem.
• Important dimensions of the 1900s labor problem
  included
• Long hours.
• Low pay.
• Dangerous and unhealthy working conditions.
• Job insecurity
• Labor was frequently viewed as just another input
  in the industrial process
• The primary conditions of the labor problem of
  the 20th century were a problem for two broad
  reasons the societal or human perspective and
  the business perspective.
• The labor problem results in the ultimate human
  resources problem balancing efficiency, equity
  and voice.

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THE LABOR PROBLEM

• Beliefs in the causes of the 20th century labor
  problem differ between four schools of thought
• The Neoclassical Economics School
• The Human Resource Management School
• The Industrial Relations School
• The Critical (Marxist) Industrial Relations
  School

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THE LABOR PROBLEM Solved?

• U.S. political and legal thought during the 1800s
  and 1900s was dominated by laissez faire views
  that were consistent with the neoclassical school
  of economics.
•  
• The Great Depression (1930s) called into serious
  question the wisdom of laissez faire legal and
  economic philosophies.
•  
• Roosevelts New Deal policy embraced the
  Industrial Relations school of thought and
  assumed that labor unions and collective
  bargaining counter corporate bargaining power,
  and provide Industrial Democracy.

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Views on Labor Unions
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WHAT DO LABOR UNIONS DO?

• Are unions good or bad?
•    Four schools of thought and the labor problem
  discussion reveal that the evaluation of labor
  unions fundamentally depends on
• Nature of work
• How labor markets operate
• The nature of the employment relationship
  conflict
• The importance of employee voice
•     Ultimately, there is no single answer to the
  question of which school of thought is correct.

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WHAT DO LABOR UNIONS DO?

• Which school of thought is right?
• Ultimately, there is no single answer to the
  question.
•  
• One way to address the issue is through an
  influential economic model of unionism developed
  by Freeman and Medoff.
•  
• This model states that labor unions have two
  faces, a monopoly face and a collective/institutio
  nal response face.
•  
• With two economic faces, unions can have both
  positive and negative economic effects on a
  diverse list of workplace and societal dimensions

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What Do Unions Do?Efficiency
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What Do Unions Do?Equity
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What Do Unions Do?Voice
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WHAT DO LABOR UNIONS DO?

• CONCLUSIONS
• Whether labor unions are good or bad is a
  difficult and complex question.
•  
• On a broad scale, thinking about the question of
  workplace governance and the labor problem reveal
  the basis for evaluating labor unionism.
•  
• The four primary schools of thought each have
  their own beliefs about the nature of markets and
  the employment relationship.
•  
• Understanding these differing views, and where
  they come from, is critical for understanding
  labor relations.

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LABOR RELATIONS OUTCOMES INDIVIDUALS AND THE
ENVIRONMENT

• What are the important influences that determine
  labor relations outcomes?
• Employment outcomes result from interactions
  between employees, unions, and employers in the
  socio-political, strategic, functional, and
  workplace tiers of the employment relationship.
• Both the environment and the nature of human
  decision-making, including ethics, shape
  employment outcomes.
• Employee reactions to perceived workplace
  injustices and employer reactions to competitive
  pressures are two major examples that illustrate
  how labor relations outcomes are determined by
  the environment and individual choices.

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The Determinants of Labor Relations Outcomes

• Start with each partys goals

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The Determinants of Labor Relations Outcomes

• Parties create strategies to pursue their goals

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The Determinants of Labor Relations Outcomes

• Parties interact at four levels

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• Goals, strategies, interactions, and thus
  outcomes, are shaped by the environment and
  individual decision-making (the human agent)

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• The environment and the human agent have multiple
  dimensions

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INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING

• The second key element for studying labor
  relations behavior and
• outcomes is the nature of individual
  decision-making
•  
• Employees, managers, shareholders, and union
  leaders make choices.
•  
• The seven dimensions of the labor relations
  environment provide broad parameters and
  constraints on the available choices, as well as
  the set of feasible choices.
•  
• These parameters and constraints determine the
  actions of employees, managers, shareholders, and
  union leaders.

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INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING

• The factors that shape these choices can be
  divided up into five major elements of human
  decision-making
• Cognition-the processing of information and
  knowledge.
• Motivation-a drive to do something (purposeful
  behavior).
• Personality-an enduring dispositional quality or
  stable mental state.
• Feelings-includes attitudes, moods and emotions.
• Ethics-the study of the general nature of morals
  and of the specific moral choices to be made by
  the individual within the context of their
  relationship to others.

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LEVELS OF DECISION MAKING

• Individuals and organizations make choices within
  the parameters of the environment. 
• Choices are influenced by ethics and other
  elements of the human agent. 
• In labor relations, these choices are made within
  four levels
• Sociopolitical
• Strategic
• Functional
• Workplace

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EMPLOYEE REACTIONS TO WORKLACE INJUSTICE

• Possible Responses?
•  
• The response chosen in specific situations are
  determined by the environment and individual
  choices.
•  
• A critical question for this course is under what
  circumstances will employees choose collective
  voice.

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EMPLOYER REACTIONS TO COMPETITIVE PRESSURES

• What are the factors that shape employers
  reactions to unions and competitive pressures?
• Environmental and individual choices
• The economic environment.
• Increased competition from domestic nonunion
  companies and international companies caused
  strong anti-union employer responses.
• Business pressures for flexibility and
  competitiveness in the global economy.
• Favorable pro-business political and social
  climate that allowed and encouraged employers to
  use replacement workers.
• Managerial values.