James B. Dworkin

Current Topics in Industrial and Labor Relations Research and Practice

Recent research on six current topics in industrial and labor relations is reviewed: (a) the decline in union membership in the United States, (b) concession bargaining, (c) unions and employee participation programs, (d) the effect of unions on productivity and profits, (e) dispute resolution, and (f) international industrial relations. For each topic, major research findings are summarized and evaluated along with suggestions forfuture research. The article concludes by considering future scenarios for the U.S. labor movement.

Success in multiple union elections: Exclusive jurisdiction vs. competition

We consider union success in certification elections where more than one union appears on the election ballot. While union victory rates in single union elections have remained well below 50 percent over the past ten years, we find that unions have been much more successful in multiple union certification elections, with win rates of as high as 90 percent during certain years. We present two theories of union success in multiple union elections and offer relevant empirical results.

Final-Offer Arbitration and the Naive Negotiator

One criticism of final-offer arbitration has been that the theory underlying the technique is too complex to be understood by inexperienced negotiators. A laboratory experiment involving ninety undergraduate students playing the roles of labor and management negotiators was conducted to compare the effect on the bargaining process of three conditions: when the negotiators expect impasses to be resolved by final-offer arbitration and that procedure is explained orally; when the negotiators expect final-offer arbitration and that procedure is explained both orally and through a videotape presentation demonstrating the use of the procedure; and when the negotiators expect no third-party intervention in the event of an impasse. Subjects who viewed the videotape reported a better understanding of the procedure, set more reasonable initial positions, arrived at more reasonable final positions, made more frequent concessions, and came closer to agreement on unresolved issues than did subjects in either of the other two conditions. Attitudes of the subject-negotiators toward their opponents and the imposed settlement were also more positive among subjects who viewed the videotape.

Managerial third party dispute resolution: An overview and introduction to the special issue

In this article I review each of the five articles included in the special issue on managerial third party dispute resolution. This review is followed by a brief listing of the goals for this special issue and three suggestions for future research. These suggestions include the need for more focus on the nonunion sector, a call for interdisciplinary research, and a plea for research concentrating on managerial third party dispute resolution in other cultures.

The Basics of Negotiations: a Pedagogical Note

The purpose of this short note is to present a method that I have found quite useful for teaching the essential concepts of negotiations to undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The method is very simple and it enables the instructor to get across some very powerful concepts to students in a minimal amount of time. In this paper I will employ an example from the realm of labormanagement negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. However, the same teaching technique can easily be adapted to illustrate negotiations over the price of a new home, the release of hostages, the acquisition of a new company or relatively minor issues such as who will wash the car or clean the house. The basic premise of this note is that negotiations occur in many different situations in our everyday lives. Thus, negotiations skills are essential for anyone who intends to work with other people and/or groups to achieve certain goals. All students can benefit from a solid understanding of negotiations principles because all of us encounter negotiations situations on almost a daily basis. The concepts presented herein should prove useful to instructors who touch upon negotiations as part of their classes in organizational behavior, management, psychology, communications, labor relations and the like. Teaching effectiveness can be enhanced when students are able to resolve the kinds of questions dealt with in a typical negotiations situation, such as: (1) How does one know when he or she is in a negotiating situation in the first place? (2) If one is in a negotiating situation, how does a person tell what kind of negotiating situation it is (distributive or integrative)? (3) What are the key elements of a distributive negotiating experience? As noted above, the same questions are fundamental to the process of negotiations whether it is being carried out at the interpersonal or international level. The ideas I present allow the instructor to present the basics of negotiations while stressing the notion that negotiations structure and pro-

The future of American Unionism

Given the changing structure of the American economy, many people (researchers and practitioners) have become partiucarly interested in the role that labor unions will play as we prepare to enter the twenty‐first century. In this paper, I review some of the basic problems that labour unions have faced in recent years and then outline three alternative scenarios for the future of the labor movement.

Social context and employment lawsuit dispute resolution

Purpose Using an institutional theory perspective (micro and macro), the authors examined employment lawsuits across case type and alternative dispute resolution methods (negotiated settlements versus trials and arbitrations). Design/methodology/approach The authors examined actual data from US federal court lawsuits (N = 98,020). The data included the type of lawsuit, the dispute resolution method used and the outcome of the lawsuit in terms of the dollar amounts awarded. Findings The results show that employers were more likely to win in high social context cases (civil rights) than in other cases (Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, ERISA). In arbitrations, plaintiffs won more frequently and were awarded higher amounts in arbitration than in court trials. In arbitration, plaintiffs received more in high social context cases than in other cases. Practical implications The results show that employers lose more often and in larger dollar amounts in arbitration than in litigation. However, if arbitration rulings more closely matched the likely outcomes of trials, subsequent litigation would be less likely to be overturned, and transaction costs would be reduced. If this were the case, the arbitration of employment lawsuits would more closely match the arbitration of contractual grievances under the typical labor relations system, where the arbitrator’s decision is usually final and binding. This could be a better outcome for all stakeholders in the dispute resolution process. Originality/value This is the first study of its kind to examine actual workplace conflicts that result in employment-related lawsuits from the perspective of social contextual factors.

DOCTORS AND UNIONS

This is a study of the unionization of physicians. This article will examine the factors that have affected the medical profession encouraging doctors to do something that was unheard of fifty years ago—to unionize. This article describes the societal changes that have encouraged doctor unionization, analyzes the legal overlay, examines the extent of doctor unionization, and makes a number of projections about the future. A half century ago doctors had nearly total control over the management of their profession. They typically worked in solo private practice. This involved either maintaining a separate office and staff or associating with a medical building for purposes of convenience and referral. Doctors had relationships with hospitals, to whom they sent patients. They also worked with private insurance companies for administration of patient claims. But doctors were essentially independent operators, working as general practitioners and, less often, as specialists. There was little regulation by government. The financial rewards and respect for the medical profession were at the highest levels. These were justified, as one practitioner put it, by the “. . . long years of training, hours of service, risk of exposure to disease, shortened earning life-span, attenuated freedom and family life, and devotion to professional self-advancement. . .” [1]. This situation no longer exists.

Review Symposium: Adams and Meltz, Industrial Relations Theory : Industrial Relations Theory: Its Natures, Scope and Pedagogy Edited by Roy J. Adams and Noah M. Meltz. IMLR Press/Rutgers University and The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, New Jersey, and London, 1993, vi + 403 pp., USS42.50 (hardback)

Over recent years there has been a gradual revival of interest in the ’bigger’ questions surrounding the role of theory in industrial relations. One catalyst for this trend has been the forum provided by the Industrial Relations Research Association Study Group on Industrial Relations Theory and Industrial Relations as a Field (Barbash & Barbash 1989; Barbash & Meltz forthcoming). The collection under review is edited by the present convenors of the IRRA group, and their work provides a welcome opportunity to reflect upon recent theoretical achievements. It is only fair to begin with the congratulations. Adams and Meltz have brought together a group of talented scholars who represent a diverse range of intellectual traditions. Teachers, students and researchers of industrial relations will also thank the editors for the range of important theoretical and pedagogic questions which the contributors to the volume were asked to address.

Book Reviews : A Behavioural Theory of Labor Negotiations: an Analysis of a Social Interaction System: By Richard E. Walton and Robert B. McKersie. Copyright 1965, McGraw- Hill, Inc. Second edition, 1991; ILR Press, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 437 pages,

By Richard E. Walton and Robert B. McKersie. Copyright 1965, McGrawHill, Inc. Second edition, 1991; ILR Press, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 437 pages,