Ed Collom

Two classes and one vision? Managers' and workers' attitudes toward workplace democracy

Workplace democracy has been advocated by labor as a means of worker empowerment and by management as an effort to improve productivity and quality. This article seeks to clarify this contradictory support through an analysis of American managers’ and workers’ attitudes. Class ideology and class experience are tested as factors that underlie attitudes toward three different forms of workplace democracy. Ordinary least squares regression and path analysis are employed in an analysis of national survey data from 1991. Class location is found to be a weak predictor, whereas class experience is a strong determinant. The findings indicate that American workers want more control once they get some influence over workplace decision making, highlighting a paradox behind the often narrow goals of managers. Implications are discussed vis-à-vis the labor movement and contemporary corporate participation programs.

Worker Control: The Bases of Women's Support

A vast amount of research on women and work indicates that women have not gained parity with men in the paid workforce. Workplace democracy is particularly relevant for women. I employ US national survey data from 1991 to analyze womens support for worker control over workplace decision-making. The nature of this support is hypothesized using four branches of feminist theory. An analysis of the gender gap in attitudes is performed and then I incorporate logistic regression to test for cleavages in womens attitudes. The lack of consistency across the items suggests that these specific work issues are not reflective of a larger, generalized predisposition to workplace democracy. I conclude by considering the relationship between women and the labor movement. Union-supported worker participation is most likely to improve womens working conditions.

Portland West Time Dollar Exchange Dataset

The Portland West Time Dollar Exchange (PWTDE) dataset contains the recorded transactions from a local currency group that existed in Portland, Maine for over four years. Such voluntary organizations allow participants to exchange services and goods without the use of federal money (see Collom, Lasker, and Kyriacou 2012). Unlike bartering (a direct swap between two parties), local currencies create a network of people and organizations in which transactions are tracked with an alternative currency. Time banks use time as their currency. The amount of time that a member spends helping another is entered in a database so that the provider is credited with “time dollars” (or “hours”) and the recipient’s account is debited. The other major form of local currency in the United States, the Ithaca Hours model, employs printed bills that members exchange for services or goods (see Collom 2005). The PWTDE began in February, 2002 and was embedded in Portland West, a community-based social service agency. The organization ran out of grant funds to support its community outreach programs and was forced to close the time bank in June 2006 (Doherty 2006). At that time, all PWTDE members were invited to join Portland’s larger and better-known time bank, the Hour Exchange Portland (see Collom et al. 2012). The data consist of the 2,316 recorded transactions involving 6,712 hours of services exchanged among the 319 members at PWTDE over the course of its history. A multitude of social network analyses are possible with this dataset. It is longitudinal, directed, and valued. The date of each transaction is included, making it possible to investigate the evolution of the network across time (see analyses by quarter in Collom 2012). The ties are directed; one member has provided a service to another. The amount of time that the exchange took (the number of time dollars earned) is the value of the tie. Moreover, investigations of qualitative aspects of the ties are also possible as the services exchanged in the transactions have been categorized into 13 broad types (see Collom 2012; Collom et al. 2012): 1) Health and Wellness (e.g., yoga, acupuncture, meditation), 2) Beauty and Spa (haircut, massage, facial), 3) Office and Administrative Support (clerical help, bulk mailing), 4) Computers and Technology (computer repair, website design, audio/ video production), 5) Tutoring, Consultation and Personal Services (lessons, tutoring, basic computer assistance, childcare), 6) Construction, Installation, Maintenance and Repair (carpentry, painting, yard/ garden maintenance), 7) Cleaning, Light Tasks and Errands (cleaning, mending and alterations, errands), 8) Food Preparation and Service (cooking, catering), 9) Transportation and Moving (transportation, moving assistance, hauling), 10) Entertainment and Social Contact (companionship, performances, telephone assurance), 11) Events and Program Support (assistance with project/event, committee meetings), 12) Sales and Rentals of Items (purchase of used goods, space rental), and 13) Arts and Crafts Production (arts and crafts, artwork).