1,721,019 research outputs found
Connective Capital as Social Capital: The Value of Problem-Solving Networks for Team Players in Firms
Full text linkTraditional human capital theory emphasizes a worker’s investment in knowledge. However, when a worker is faced with day-to-day problems on the job, the solutions to the problems often require more knowledge from a team of experts within the firm. When a worker taps into the knowledge of experts, the worker develops his “connective capital.” Firms that value problem solving highly will develop the human resource management practices that support the environment of sharing knowledge. Data from the steel industry displays these concepts. For seven large steel mills, we gather data on the communications networks of steelworkers. The data shows that networks are exceedingly diverse across mills, and that the mills that have human resource management practices that support teamwork are the mills that have with much more dense high-volume communications links among workers. That is, workers in team-orientated mills have much higher levels of personal connective capital used for problem-solving.
Economic Effects of The Firefighters' Union
Full text linkThis is a study of the effects of unionism in the public sector occupation of firefighting. A large and detailed set of data permits the examination of submarkets of this occupation. A before/after methodology is introduced to obtain more precise estimates of union wage differentials. The study's findings are: (1) that there is a greater union effect on fringes than on salaries which indicates a significant alteration in the composition of the compensation package;(2) that the estimates from the before/after methodology confirm the cross-section results which show modest union wage differentials; and ,most significantly, (3) that the union effect varies along different dimensions -- most notably the length of the contractual arrangement between municipality and union.
Have Angels Done More? The Steel Industry Consent Decree
Full text linkThis study analyzes the Consent Decree of the United States' basic steel industry which reformed plant seniority systems to accommodate issues of equal employment opportunity. The plant-by-plant litigation brought under Title VII and Executive Order 11246 is shown to be the main catalyst which brought representatives of the steel industry, of the United Steel Workers of America, and of the appropriate government agencies to negotiate this industry-wide solution. The principal terms of the steel industry Consent Decree are: the establishment of a mechanism to implement the Decree; the uniform institution of plant-wide seniority; the retention of pay rates after transfer to a position that provides a lower pay rate than the previous position; the establishment of goals for minority representation in trade and craft jobs; and a back pay settlement. The analysis of these provisions reveals two related points. Black representation in trade and craft jobs increased in the four year period after the Decree, with an indication that the increase was greater than pre-1974 employment trends would have predicted. However, 1978 black/white employment figures indicate that underutilization of blacks in these positions still persists.
Public Sector Union Growth and Bargaining Laws: A Proportional Hazards Approach with Time-Varying Treatments
Full text linkThis study uses a Cox proportional hazards model to estimate ther elationship between state-level collective bargaining policies and union growth in the public sector. The proportional hazards analysisis performed with data on approximately eight hundred municipal police departments. The timing of unionization in these departments clearly indicates that unionization rarely precedes the enactment of a statute. Where bargaining laws have not been enacted, formal collective bargaining between municipalities and their police is virtually nonexistant. Moreover, the proportional hazards analysis that controls for the effects of other state-level and municipal-level covariates indicates that the bargaining laws and policies are the most important determinant of unionization among police. Among different types of bargaining policies, "duty-to-bargain" provisions lead to higher unionization rates than do statutes that permit, but do not require, employers to bargain with police. However, after controlling for for the effects of other covariates, there appears to be no difference in the unionization rates between the states that have duty-to-bargain provisions along with an interest arbitration mechanism and those states that have duty-to-bargain provisions without such a dispute resolution mechanism.
The Economic Performance of Survivors after Layoffs: A Plant-Level Study
Full text linkThis study tests for the empirical relationship between layoffs and the economic performance of workers who remain after the layoffs. Previous studies performed in laboratory settings have often found increases in the efficiency of workers after layoffs. This analysis is the first to test for this relationship using operating data from a set of similar establishments. Within the framework of a modified Cobb-Douglas production function, layoffs do not influence subsequent productivity in the establishments in this study's sample. It is also suggested that the seniority systems governing layoffs and the highlevels of capital intensity in these establishments may help explain the difference between the findings in the laboratory studies and those obtained in this analysis.
Motivating Employee Owners in ESOP Firms: Human Resource Policies and Company Performance
Full text linkWhat enables some employee ownership firms to overcome the free rider problem andmotivate employees to improve performance? This study analyzes the role of humanresource policies in the performance of employee ownership companies, using employeesurvey data from 14 companies and a national sample of employee-owners. Between-firmcomparisons of 11 ESOP firms show that an index of human resource policies, nominallycontrolled by management, is positively related to employee reports of co-workerperformance and other good workplace outcomes (including perceptions of fairness, goodsupervision, and worker input and influence). Within-firm comparisons in three ESOP firms,and exploratory results from a national survey, show that employee-owners who participatein employee involvement committees are more likely to exert peer pressure on shirking coworkers.We conclude that an understanding of how and when employee ownership workssuccessfully requires a three-pronged analysis of: 1) the incentives that ownership gives; 2)the participative mechanisms available to workers to act on those incentives; and 3) thecorporate culture which battles against tendencies to free ride.human resources, industrial relations, employee ownership
Ruling Out Productivity? Labor Contract Pages and Plant Performance
Full text linkThis study documents a strong inverse relationship between number of pages of labor contracts in effect and the productivity observed in a sample of ten unionized plants. It is argued that this relationship reflects the productivity-inhibiting effects of increases in the number and complexity of work rules. The study also argues that subsequent research should try to improve the measurement of work rules by considering the substance of the rules and which parameters of a production function the rules are likely to affect.
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