In mainstream economics unions are harmful because they are monopolies that impair economic efficiency. Unions may exist, but they are bad. The preferred method of workplace governance is reliance on competitive markets. In the human resource management school, unions are an indication that management is not successfully creating motivated and efficient workers via firm-created human resource management policies.
Unions may exist, but they are unnecessary. In critical industrial relations thought, unions are either management tools of worker suppression or worker tools of power and revolution, though neither of these are mainstream U. The desired mechanisms for governing the workplace are worker control or socialism. Within the intellectual framework of the industrial relations school, unions are a critical part of the solution to the labor problem because collective, not individual, bargaining is needed to match corporate bargaining power and because independent employee voice is important in a democratic society.
The preferred method of workplace governance is a combination of government standards and labor union representation. One important method for answering the question of whether unions are good or bad is conceptual. Evaluating the Effects of Unionism. The research on the effects of unions on U. Unionized workers in the United States are generally estimated to have wages approximately 15 percent higher than comparable nonunion workers. This is called the union wage premium. Unions can be hypothesized to lower productivity by using their power to negotiate restrictive work rules and by introducing time-consuming decisionmaking procedures.
On the other hand, unions can potentially enhance productivity in several ways. The research evidence supports the presence of a shock effect: The presence of a union shocks managers out of complacency and forces them to develop better managerial practices and policies that improve workplace efficiency, including more formal human resource policies such as training programs, and objective rather than subjective selection tests. Union voice gives workers an alternative to quitting when they are dissatisfied with a job, and research finds that unionized workers are in fact less likely to quit.
Unions can also enhance a democratic society by promoting workplace interactions among workers from diverse backgrounds. Theories of the Labor Movement. A labor movement is a social movement in which workers and unions from multiple workplaces join together to pursue common interests, most frequently in the political and social arenas. The labor movement provides a voice for workers in the political arena; whereas labor unions, or their associated political action committees, endorse candidates for political offices, mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts, campaign on behalf of candidates, and lobby and make donations to lawmakers.
The critical industrial relations model sees labor movements that are active in the political and social arenas as vital for countering the dominant power of employers. From a pluralist perspective then, the labor movement makes important contributions in the political and civil arenas in contemporary democratic societies; and the relationship between a vibrant, independent labor movement and a healthy, balanced democratic society must be remembered when evaluating labor unions.
The intellectual foundations of the U. As an alternative to integrating these into the lecture, lecture on the four schools without referring to the pieces of line art. Then make photocopies and distribute the four pictures, and in pairs have students try to match the pictures with each school of thought. Do not let them use their textbooks. Discuss and de-brief. Note: the four pieces of line art without any identifying information appear at the end of the chapter 2 PowerPoint slide for use in this exercise.
The description of each picture in the text provides the details needed to make the connections between each picture and the school of thought. Have students list the four schools of thought along with the basic cause of the labor problem and solution to the labor problem for each. Defining Features. Assign small groups of students a specific nonunion business situation e. Then have the small groups report their ideas to the class.
Consumers almost unanimously agree that they should be able to keep their phone number if they switch phone companies. Before November , however, individuals who switched wireless carriers had to get a new cell phone number. Have students discuss the following: Without government regulations, why do you think consumers were unable to obtain local number portability?
Hint: Apply the different schools of thought described in this chapter. Besides government regulation, what are some alternatives for obtaining local number portability? Suggestive Answer: Mainstream economics: market is competitive, but consumers unwilling to pay for the extra cost of portability; alternatively, there is a market failure because this requires coordination across a number of competing companies.
Mother Jones, a colorful figure in U. That ought to be a slogan with investigators on both sides of the labor question. How are the major premises of the mainstream economics and industrial relations schools consistent with Figure 2. How would you change the label on the gun to make this into a mainstream economics drawing? An industrial relations drawing? In both the mainstream economics and industrial relations schools, everyone benefits from cooperation.
Sharing the bounty of the turkey is therefore consistent with these schools in addition to the human resource management school.
Review Figure 2. Sketch a similar diagram to capture the range of outcomes possible within the human resource management school Hint: Use a pendulum but not necessarily a power struggle between labor and management. However, one possible idea for the diagram would be a pendulum that goes from conflict and distrust at one end to harmony and productivity at the other. Ineffective policies that fail to align the interests of workers and employers fall at the.
Think of jobs you or someone you know has had. What was undesirable about these jobs? Was the pay too low? Hours too long? Were you treated poorly? Which of the four schools of thought best explains the causes of these undesirable aspects? What would you try to do to redress these undesirable features? This is partly an economic issue, that is, workers should be able to afford decent housing, clothing, food, and the like; in other words, equity is important.
The business perspective—are the workers motivated? Absenteeism and turnover were costly. Strikes and other forms of industrial conflict that resulted from the labor problem in both the private and public sectors were costly to business and to society more generally. The Mainstream Economics School. The mainstream economics school of thought focuses on the economic activity of self-interested agents, such as firms and workers, who interact in competitive markets.
Under some assumptions such as perfect information , competition results in the optimal allocation and pricing of resources. The conditions of the labor problem are not seen as exploitation if there is sufficient labor market competition. Employees are paid their economic value and are free to quit if they feel they are being exploited. Competition should be ensured if market failures prevent competitive markets from working properly.
The best protection an employee has against his or her current employer is not the government, a lawyer, or a union, but rather other employers. Outcomes are value-free, so there may be a labor situation which simply describes the outcomes but not a labor problem which implies that the outcomes are undesirable. Unions are seen as labor market monopolies that restrict the supply of labor and interfere with the invisible hand of free-market competition.
The economics view of work is that it is a lousy activity endured only to earn money. The role of government is not to establish labor standards but only to promote competition.
The role of law is to protect individual freedoms that are necessary for competition. The Human Resource Management School. The human resource management school, which was formerly called the personnel management school, believes that the labor problem stems from poor management. This school of thought presents a different underlying cause of the labor problem: poor management.
To create motivated and efficient workers, firms should design and implement better supervisory methods, selection procedures, training methods, compensation systems, and evaluation and promotion mechanisms. If workers want justice, security, respect, and opportunities for advancement, then firms should design human resource management policies that are responsive to these needs to create motivated and efficient employees. Voice is typically informal, such as in open-door resolution procedures in which workers individually discuss complaints with their managers.
To consider the role of unions in the human resource management school of thought, it is important to distinguish independent labor unions from nonindependent employee organizations: Independent labor unions—are legally and functionally independent of employers and governments and have the power to elect their own leaders, collect and spend their own dues money, establish their organizational objectives and strategies, and lead strikes.
Nonindependent employee organizations— lack such authority as enjoyed by independent labor unions and are controlled by employers like the company unions in the United States in the s or by governments as traditionally is the case for unions in China. Human resource professionals have greater influence in companies when there is a threat of unionization, but an important objective is often to keep unions out.
Critics see human resource management as nothing more than a sophisticated albeit gentle antiunion device. The Industrial Relations School. The industrial relations school, formerly called the institutional labor economics school, believes that labor problems stem from unequal bargaining power between corporations and individual workers.
Institutional labor economists saw the following market imperfections: Persistent unemployment Company towns dominated by a single employer Lack of worker savings and other safety nets Large, monopolistic employers with undue influence in markets, politics, and the legal system. With greater bargaining power, employers can pay low wages for working long hours under dangerous working conditions.
This greater bargaining power allows managers to be autocratic and authoritarian. When there is a balance of power between labor and management, there is an abundant harvest for both to share. The Critical Industrial Relations School. This school focuses on how dominant groups design and control institutions to serve their own interests, albeit imperfectly due to resistance from competing groups.
A labor law that legally protects workers who try to unionize is seen as an attempt to mollify the working class and prevent it from agitating for deeper changes in the capitalist system. Within their own organizations, employers are seen as structuring the organization of work and human resource management practices to serve their interests at the expense of labor. The division of labor is viewed as a strategy to make labor easily replaceable and therefore weak.
Some of the strategies to prevent workers from unionizing include the following: Fair treatment through progressive human resources policies The perception of input through nonunion voice mechanisms The creation of pro-company attitudes through the development of distinctive corporate cultures.
Labor unions can be important in critical industrial relations. Low wages for long hours of dangerous work under autocratic supervision and periods of insecurity can be traced to four possible underlying causes: Market failures Poor management Unequal bargaining power between employers and individual employees The domination of labor by the capitalist class. Underlying these views are three fundamental assumptions about how markets work and the nature of employment: Is labor just a commodity?
Are employers and employees equals in competitive labor markets? What is the nature of conflict between employers and employees? What is the nature of labor? Mainstream economics views the purpose of the economic system as consumption. Labor is just another commodity or machine in. The other three schools human resource management, industrial relations, and critical industrial relations reject the belief that labor is just a commodity and instead see labor as human beings with aspirations, feelings, and rights.
Work fulfills important psychological and social needs and provides more than extrinsic, monetary rewards that support consumerism. Are employers and employees equal in the labor market and the legal arena? The assertion that employers and employees are equal is equivalent to believing that the fundamental assumptions of mainstream economics, such as perfect information and no transaction costs, are fulfilled.
The other schools of thought, however, assert that employers and employees are not equals, either in the labor market or in the legal arena.
Three different answers distinguish the human resource management, industrial relations, and critical industrial relations schools of thought—and are therefore important. The human resource management school has a unitarist view of employment relationship conflict. Conflict is not seen as an inherent or a permanent feature of the employment relationship; conflict is seen as a manifestation of poor human resource management policies or interpersonal clashes such as personality conflicts.
In contrast, the industrial relations school sees the workplace as characterized by multiple interests—that is, a plurality of legitimate interests akin to a pluralist political system—so this school embraces a pluralist view of conflict in the employment relationship.
Believers in pluralist workplace conflict see government laws and labor unions as balancing conflict—striking a balance among efficiency, equity, and voice. The critical industrial relations school believes in an inherent conflict between employers and employees, but it is significantly broader than the limited economic conflict in the pluralist view.
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Personalize your learning. Industrial relations D. Improve human resource management practices. Sign up with Facebook Sign up with Twitter. In addition, what a feeling, and decreasing the likelihood of discrimination against workers. Step 7 simatic manager free download social advice Users interested in Step 7 simatic manager free download generally download.
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Making the team a guide for managers fifth edition 5th edition by thompson test bank 6 35 0. S unions offer a model that should be imitated by other unions because it holds long term potential for eliminating class divisions FALSE Difficulty: Hard 27 p 37 According to the critical industrial relations school, the most successful labor unions are those that take a very pragmatic, business-like approach to bargaining for better wages, hours and working conditions FALSE Difficulty: Hard 28 p 37 The term "socialist" has been used widely in the mainstream press lately Socialism describes a movement that would encourage and utilize revolution as a way to replace capitalism with worker control FALSE Difficulty: Moderate 29 p 37 The declining unionization rates and increasing income inequality in the U.
S labor laws were written to reflect the central belief that unions are needed to counter corporate power following the labor problems of early industrialization and this support for bilateral decision-making has received strong, long-lasting support in the U. Essay Questions p 28 Describe some of the stereotypes that exist about unions in the U.
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